Meeting Snuffles
by Kaydern
Summary: COMPLETE!!! And about time. Possible slash, depending on what my dear readers say (Dean/Seamus). An odd little story about one of the less-mentioned characters and the ever famous Sirius Black. Tom Riddle with also be making an appearence.R/R, please!
1. Maunders Don’t Need Plans

Meeting Snuffles  
  
Disclaimer- I'm not sure what I own. Okay... I know. I own NOTHING! Now go away and let me manipulate J.K. Rowlings' characters in my insanity.  
  
Prologue  
  
Maunders Don't Need Plans  
  
Leaning against my bedpost, sun streaming through my window, I'm at a lose as to what I should do. I probably should do something helpful.   
"Ah well, that'd ruin the summer."  
So I just lean over and scratch Snuffles. Now, Snuffles is an odd dog. I've met a lot of odd people here at Hogemeade's child shelter (that's where I live) so I suppose a big, black dog that only answers to the name Snuffles shouldn't be a big deal. But it bugs me. And the fact Snuffles can always find me. That can made hide-and-seek really boring. Anyway, the sun was setting and tomorrow I would be sure to get my grades from sixth year. Since school ends before all the teachers at Hogwarts can finish grading finals, the results get sent home by owl. At least that's the way it works for the Hogwarts students living in Hogsmeade. I usually do okay on finals. Usually, but I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about my Potions exam this year. I groaned.   
"This isn't good." Snuffles looked up at me questioningly.   
"I think we all know if Madam Bell sees what that creep Snape gave me in Potions, I'm dead meat. You'll probably get kicked out." Snuffles (who had been ignoring my explanation) looked up at this. It never ceased to amaze me who well Snuffles understood me. Well, I'd read somewhere once that said wizarding animals were smarter than normal ones. This apparently extended to dogs. I smiled down at Snuffles. I wasn't really sure about 'tampering' with owl post, but images of Madam Bell taking away my wand firmed my resolve.   
"Come on , we've got a report card to steal!"  
  
"There it is!" I whispered fiercely. And there it was. Several letters had just arrived, barring the Hogwarts crest. My report was sure to be in there *somewhere*. Going against my own summer religion I had woken up very early the past few weeks so I could fetch the mail. Unfortunately, I was not the only student year worried about their vacation. Dean Thomas, a 5th year, was already out there snatching up the mail.  
"Dean!" I whispered loudly, afraid to wake the Bell family. "Come back here!"  
Dean froze before he realized I wasn't an adult.   
"Kate! You scared me!"  
"Sorry." I muttered. "Well, hand mine over."  
Dean grumbled. "I can't tell these things apart..."  
I looked down and discovered all the letters baring the Hogwarts seal said simply 'The guardians Mr. and Mrs. Liam Bell.' "Bugger! what're we going to do now?" Dean shrugged, prepared to face his fate when Madame Bell discovered his failing grade (probably in Potions, Snape was the same to all Gryffindors) and got his wand taken away for the summer (or whatever Madam Bell knew he liked the most).  
"Potions?" I questioned, not sure what to do now. Dean nodded helplessly. We must look pretty funny. Two young magical kids standing outside in their pajamas and soaking their socks on the wet grass. Wait, we still had our wands, didn't we? "Dean, lets open them up." Dean looked horrified.  
"Silly git, we can just use a repair charm if they're not ours!"   
"Right, good idea." Kate paused a moment in silent thanks Dean didn't share many of her classes or friends and didn't expect her to get good grades. Sometimes it was nice for people to expect nothing of you. The two Gryffindors headed inside with their loot, triumphant. Several minutes later found them sitting at the kitchen table shuffling thought letters.   
"Any luck, Dean?" I questioned. Three letters sat in front of me, all opened. One belonged to Dean's younger brother, Chris, who had just started school last year (Ravenclaw). And twins, Amanda and Lauren Coon (Slytherin). Dean shook his head.  
"I've got Chris's, Amy and Lauren's. We'd better hurry up." I nodded towards the rising sun. Dean gulped. I think Snuffles rolled his eyes, but I wasn't sure. Dean and I quickly reached for the last two letters at the same time.  
"Ready?"  
"Ready." I ripped open the letter I had grabbed. It had to be mine, just had too! I was extremely worried Madam Bell would find us. She was always up before me...  
"This's mine!" I said in an above average volume whisper. Whipping out the page with my grades, I carefully examined it, scanning for my Potions grade.  
"Whoa...." Dean looked at me.   
"I passed! Can you believe it, I *actually* passed Potions!!" I was stunned. Apparently I had interpreted Snape's 'you could have had a passing grade but I ruined your chances at a Ministry job stupid Gryffindor' smirk with his 'there was no way I could fail you so I'm just going to have to and kill you now' sneer. Well they all looked the same anyway. Dean ginned back at me.  
"Me too. Looks like the greasy-haired git couldn't fail us. Dumbledore musta been watching!"  
"Must have." Suddenly Snuffles jumped up and started growling.  
"Bugger! Someone must be coming!" I grabbed Dean's hand and we flew out the back door. As soon as we were out of hearing distance and surrounded by other people's home, Dean paused for a moment then sat down, covering his face with his hands.  
"Dean?" What was wrong with him?  
"We forgot to seal the letters up."  
"Bugger!" We are in so much trouble. I wonder, did Dean know a Charm that could root people to the ground on the spot? Probably not, or I would remember it. Damage control was nonexistent, since somebody else was already downstairs. Neither of us could go back and seal up the letters now. So I did the only thing I could. I turned to Snuffles.  
"Snuffles?" The large black dog, who had been listening to our conversation and knew how much trouble we could get landed in, looked ready to roll on the ground laughing.  
"This isn't funny! You have to help us!" Snuffles gave me a look that clearly said. 'What's in it for me?'  
"I really don't have time for this! My life is at stake." The bloody dog just looked at me.  
"Fine already. I'll nick you a chicken. The whole thing. Cooked." Snuffles bounded off happily. Dean looked confused at the silent communication that had passed between me and my dog.   
"What just happened?" He asked, awe finding it's was into his voice.  
"Snuffles is going to try to fix the mess we left." Dean looked properly impressed.  
"Then what was that business about the chicken?" Dean wondered out loud. I could feel my cheeks heat up and I looked down.  
"Well, ah... you see, Snuffles hates dog food. Even the wizarding brand. So I give him human food, sometimes. Chicken's his favorite." Dean just shook his head.  
"Girls." He muttered under his breath and I pretended not to hear him. The comment was quite rude of him. After all, hadn't my being a *girl* just saved our butts?  
"Alright, ungrateful little boy, lets go home already." Dean nodded in agreement.  
As we walked home, we passed several of the shops in Hogsmeade. Dean was seriously considering the time was right to raid Zonkos until I reminded him of his nonexistent pocket money. I personally wanted to owl some of my friends (wizarding and muggle) about my luck in potions. Dean laughed at me.   
"C'mon Kate. I want to get home." I grumbled about boys and their lack of proper judgment, enjoying the bright summer sun. I couldn't hear any birds singing or anything romantic, but everything was *so* green, I gave up trying to talk Dean into giving me a few minutes to owl people and challenged him to a race home.  
  
Liam Bell was an Auror. And as such, he noticed the little details and took careful note of them. So he was confused to find the mail sitting inside, unopened. None of his children adopted or otherwise, got up early. This wasn't the only thing puzzling him. 'Snuffles,' as everyone referred to him, was an ongoing mystery to him. The dog tugged at a thought, but every time he reached for it, the memory (he was sure it was a memory) became muddled. The object of his puzzling was sitting on the floor, panting at him. Liam knew the snuffles question (as he called it in his head) wasn't going to be solved this instant, so he went to go check on the cooling charms. Already they were deteriorating. 'It's going to be another scorcher' Liam thought. The whole summer had been odd. The weather had been nice early on in the spring, then froze over, usually with snow covering the new grass. Then a cold spring had lasted much longer than it should, like it was making up for the nice weather. Now summer was upon Hogsmeade and it hadn't rained in a month. At least. A magical fire crackled to life somewhere in the house. Liam summoned some coffee and pushed all puzzles not relating to work from his mind. If the office was calling the early in the morning, it wasn't going to be a good day.  
  
Amy and Lauren Coon shared a bed. It wasn't like they needed to or anything. Since they lived in the only all-wizarding town in Europe, magical house expansion was limited only by the Ministry (they drew the line at swimming pools floating ten feet above a home). But when the twins slept in different rooms, and sometimes beds, they had horrible nightmares. Nobody needed to ask about who. In fact, Amy and Lauren weren't the only children in the Bell house with recurring nightmares. The Thomas boys, Amy, Lauren and several other children who had already moved out had lost their families to Voldemort (what? you thought Harry Potter was the only orphan?). Liam and Fey Bell had no children of their own, at least not that the twins knew of. But the twins never left each other's side for long, so their espionage skills left much to be desired. Nobody would have been surprised when they trooped downstairs holding hands and wearing identical Slytherin sneers. *Slytherin* sneers, the type used by people who never stopped acting for that invisible audience. Unfortunately for them, no-one was in the family room to witness their performance. Mister Bell had left for Alastor Moody's office only moments before. So they sat down by the couch facing the stairway and waited for everyone to wake up. Needless to say they were both floored when Kate Bell and Dean Thomas stumbled in the front door, sweaty and panting. Snuffles padded in, raised a shaggy eyebrow with and expression that clearly said '*somebody* got some action!' The twins made the obvious conclusion.  
  
Kate looked up to see the twins wide awake (thought still in fluffy green pajamas) and closing in for the kill. Lauren opened her mouth to speak, mirroring her sister's predatory grin. Before either twin could otter a word Kate interrupted.  
"This isn't what it looks like. Really!"  
Amy said nothing but started moving around her and Dean. Lauren quickly followed suit. Kate was mildly amused with the twins until she realized *what* exactly they were doing. They were circling, much like a hawk circles it's prey before claiming it's meal. 'This isn't good. The last time they circled a person, Chris cried himself to sleep for weeks!' Kate thought frantically. The situation suddenly seemed much less humorous.   
"Really? What does it look like to you, Amy?" Lauren asked. Dean also remembered the Chris incident and looked as terrified as Kate felt. The twins were always brutal with their taunting and they took extreme pleasure in whispering personal secrets to gossipers. Kate and Dean knew Amy and Lauren would push their advantage to get favors and information about Gyffindors. Slytherins to the core, the twins would ruin their lives, even about something as little as this.  
"We're going to die." Dean mumbled. Amy stood to their right, smirking. Both Slytherins had stopped circling in favor of standing in front of the Gryffindors, savoring victory and letting tension build. The explanation about just walking died on Kate's lips. It sounded too innocent. Kate decided to try anyway. After all, it was the truth, wasn't it?  
"I went outside for fresh air, Dean followed me and we raced home. That's *all*." Kate said, trying to sound firm.   
Snuffles shook his head in disgust.  
Amy ignored her comment. She tossed aside the excuse like a dead rat the cat brings in and said.   
"Looks to me like two Gryffindors were out snogging, Lauren." Lauren shook her head in disgust.  
"They're like little rabbits, aren't they?" Lauren agreed. Kate was left wondering how they could continue the 'what it looks like' conversation without a slip-up. Dean covered his ears.  
"I am *not* hearing this!!!" Amy's eyes brightened with even more maniac intensity, if such a thing was humanly possible.  
"Looks like little Deanie fancies Katherine." She commented. Kate thought dean looked ready to cry. Still, she was startled by Amy's revelation. Could she be right?   
Dean surprised everyone. He stood up to his full height, (mere inches shorter than Ron Weasley, who was freakishly tall already) his cheeks stained crimson and said,  
"Like you two fancy the twins, eh?"   
"Okay Dean, it's your funeral. Amy, Lauren, have at him. Right Thomas?" Kate said. The question didn't register with Dean, because he just nodded mutely. He was busy starring at the twins.   
Their sneers were plastered on, but grimaces shown through. The change from playful (in that head ripping sort of way) to broken to pure anger was remarkable. Dean shook in his boots.  
Just then Madam Bell walked in.  
"Liam's off to work already. Quite early too. I'll get breakfast started." She said to no-one in particular. Then she noticed the near catastrophe in the family room.  
"Good heavens! What's going on in here?" She looked startled. Nobody answered her, but Amy and Lauren about-faced stiffly and walked out over to the couch and returned to their original position, facing the stairway. Kate doubted the last child sleeping, Dean's younger brother Chris, would escape their wrath. Fey Bell huffed and turned on the WWN with a flick of her wand. While the Owls played on the wizarding radio, Dean frantically searched for missing limbs. Dean consoled himself that he was still alive because the Owl's song 'Your Magic' would *not* be playing in heaven (the boy band craze had hit Britain as well, the Owls being just one among the many *NSYNC look-a-likes). The twins looked visibly calmed by the music, but the instant Madam Bell disappeared around the corner into the kitchen, Lauren and Amy sneered at Dean.  
"You'll pay for that, Gryffindor." Lauren whispered, her voice full of menace. Amy said nothing, but her glare was a silent threat in itself. Kate could also see betrayal shinning in her eyes. Kate led Dean into the hall, thanking Merlin his guts weren't splattered all over the hall. Kate wasn't sure she would have minded too much, thought. The twins may be nasty (okay, damn near evil) but they were her sisters.   
They had told her about their crush on the Weasley twins almost two years ago. Amy liked George and Lauren, Fred. Kate was just amazed they could tell the twins *apart*. Less than half the Gryffindor dorm could do that. Kate suggested they get on the twins good side. And even first years knew the way to Fred and George's heart was through pranks.   
The plan was set. Amy and Lauren had learned the Head Boy's room viva Penelope, (who blushed the whole time) and learned of a secret entrance for Slytherins only. The Weasley's older brother, Percy, just happened to be Head Boy that year. It was the perfect plan. Until George pushed Amy away without even hearing of the secret passage and Fred rudely told Lauren they *already* knew every passageway in the castle. The boys claimed Amy and Lauren just wanted to lure away for Sirius Black to murder. That was one of the few arguments the girls ever backed down from.  
They were going into seventh year, just like Kate, but Slytherin grudges could last lifetimes. Besides, Kate was almost certain they still fancied the twins. She couldn't explain all that to Dean, thought. He was, after all, just a boy.   
Dean looked at her curiously.  
"Dean, I can't begin to tell you what an idiot you are!"  
"What did I... wait, do the twins really like Fred and George?"  
"Yes." Dean looked excited. He finally had something against the twins. Kate glared at him.  
"Don't even think about Dean. If you try, they'll kill you. Haven't you seen what they almost did to you today? Besides, Amy and Lauren are your sisters!" Dean looked abashed. Family loyalty was very important in the Bells. In fact, Dean's loyalty to family was what got him into Gryffindor.   
"I wouldn't a very good Gryffindor if I did that...." Dean muttered.  
"Dean, can you keep this too yourself?"  
"...yeh. I understand." Kate nodded.  
"Good to hear, mate. I hear squeaks, so your Ravenclaw brother must be up." Dean smiled, and they headed back into the family room.  
  
Liam was right. It wasn't going to be a good day. Alastor was here. At the Auror Head Quarters. Alastor Moody, who was supposed to be retired, back a work. Not the sign of a good day. Mad-Eye Moody had braved the floo network (after several hours of searching for curses in the net) to stupify the new secretary in his office. Now, nestled among his many Dark Arts sensors and spy tools, he looked like the proud owner of his own branch at Madame Pandora's (Charmed) Protection/Detection Devices of the Paranoid. It was quite disturbing, really to see the old coot running amok with his electric blue eye and hip flask, muttering 'constant vigilance' at everyone.  
'Things must be really serious if Moody was called in!' Mad-Eye was even more paranoid after last year, and if his expertise was needed, things must be down right awful.  
"Liam. Good to see you." Moody said in his usual gruff tone. Seemingly independent of it's owner, his magical eye was carefully checking the doorway into his office for other Aurors.  
"What's going on, Alastor?" Liam questioned, completely ignoring the welcome. Moody never offered greetings unless he wanted to avoid a subject. Things were getting worse and worse, but the Auror swallowed his worry and waited for orders. Moody smiled at him, twisting all his scars and emphasizing the chunk missing in his nose. Liam smiled back.  
"Right to the point. Wonderful to see all the Aurors haven't gone soft." Liam's' Slytherin-like perception hadn't deserted him. Alastor was defiantly hiding something. 'But what could it be?' Liam resolved to find out.  
"Alastor. What's happening?" Moody nodded.  
"Not to be distracted. Well, I believe you recall year before last when Black was spotted in Cullsmeade?" Liam nodded to Moody.  
It had been one of the hardest times in his life, knowing that a mass-murderer had been spotted in muggle Hogsmeade. Hogsmeade was all wizarding, but there was a mountain south of Hogsmeade that separated it from Cullsmeade, or muggle Hogsmeade as magic people call it.   
Before Albus Dumbledore's time, Hogsmeade was like every other village, town or city. Muggle and Magical folk co-existed, although the former remained unaware of the latter. The famous Shrieking Shack had gained it's reputation when it emitted strange noises until every muggle had escaped over the mountain. The Wizarding community realized it's chance and quickly set up strong muggle-repellent charms all around Hogsmeade. Hogsmeade citizens remained in fear of the Shrieking Shack even after the haunting ended. Open-minded historians believe the 'haunting' was caused by early followers of Grindelwald. This theory was dropped when the Shack resumed shrieking in the 1970-80's (which Liam later discovered was Remus Lupin).   
Liam pulled himself out of history as Moody continued.  
"Fudge got to thinking he needs to be more popular to the common wizard, and instead of promising to relax magical restrictions like everybody else, he wants Black. Thinks that sending the murderer back to Azkaban will set the popularity poles in his favor." Liam understood why the minister was refocusing efforts against Black. If he wanted to stay Minister of Magic, he needed supporters. And fast.   
Liam caught the tone of disgust in Moody's voice. He understood that too. There were much more important things to worry about. Like the rise of the Dark Lord. Alastor and Liam knew, but few Ministry workers had students going to Hogwarts, and Author Weasley had little sway in the Ministry. But what did this have to do with him? Liam was better suited for interrogation, not field work, and Alastor knew it.  
"Hogsmeade and Cullsmeade are the only leads we have for the Black case. Your the only local Auror we have. People will talk to you, and you should be able to pick up some leads. I'm leaving you in charge of this case, in fact. I hope my trust is not misplaced."  
Liam was stunned. He nodded dumbly and turned out the door. He walked slowly down a hallway and out of the squat set of buildings known as Auror HQ (Mad-Eye insisted AHQ be non-Apparatable). As Liam walked, thoughts traveled across his mind with no apparent reason. Moody rarely ever entrusted a case from the Minister of Magic to anybody. He handled it himself. And this wasn't just any case. Liam remembered Sirius Black form school. But how could he harbor any pity for this man? Betraying James and Lily, some of his best friends? And killing another, Peter Pettigrew, along with a dozen muggles? Through the muddle that was Liam Bell's mind, one sentence remained clear.  
'I hope my trust hasn't been misplaced'  
Moody trusted him. And Alastor didn't give trust easily.   
Yet this was personal. Liam had been one of the inseparable four's tag-a-longs. Sirius had been training to be an Auror, so his betrayal had hit many of the Aurors in training. It had hit their group even harder. If push came to shove, Liam didn't know if he could hurt, even... condemn to death James' energetic best friend. But James and Lily were dead because of Sirius, and he was most certainly a Death Eater. And... if he was a Death Eater. Wait. If he was a Death Eater- that made him the rat. He had killed.... 'I've got no choice now. Black is dead.' Liam thought. Now he had to convince Fey.  
Alastor Moody's magical eye followed Liam all the way out of Auror HQ until he disappeared with a 'pop'. Moody scowled at this. He had just barely managed to pass his Apparation test at 19, and it still wore on him. 'Liam.' Alastor believed Bell would put his work before emotion, just like Auror training droned, so his response changed everything. If Liam hesitated when the time came, Black would be all over him. Pettigrew had paid with his life for hesitating with words. Perhaps he should send and Auror to watch Bell, make sure he did his job. Just to be careful.  
Mad-Eye smiled. He was always careful.  
  
Screech owls are in fact the fastest short-distance flyers in all of England. It's been confirmed by every wizarding post office in Britain and publicized by the Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, Owls Illustrated and many other well read material in England. After all, when You-know-who was in power, such statistics were a matter of life and death.  
Sirius Black recalled all this as he watched the screech owl had borrowed from the post office in Hogsmeade. Owls were much more intelligent than they let on, and this one knew how important Dumbledore was. Snuffles had no doubt the owl and letter would reach Hogwarts safely. He had been silly, telling the owl about his correspondence was part of an underground resistance movement against the Dark Lord. 'Well, it least the owl'll be proud.' Sirius thought, amused. So Sirius went back to work, already imaging Dumbledore's relaxed amusement. 'Somehow I doubt this will surprise the old coot' Nobody paid any attention to the large black dog. Even if it did look like the Grimm. But not in full daylight.  
  
"Everybody! Come look at this! Charm of Origin!" Called a perpetually squeaky voice from the second floor of the Bell household. The music from WWN seemed to have calmed the twins down, and they only scowled up the stairs to the squeaky voice. Kate and Dean walked back into the family room and the twins made a point of ignoring them.   
Having entered late, the two Gryffindors did not hear the cry, so they were surprised when a short boy rushed down the stairs waving a gigantic book entitled Standard Book of Spells; Grade Seven (the 1975 edition).   
"Doesn't *anyone* want to see this spell in action?!" Chris look amazed that nobody wanted to watch a spell he had read about and even more surprised they didn't want to watch a spell he had read about from a dusty tome nobody had seen in 20+ years.  
'Well, not everybody can be a Ravenclaw' He thought with pride. Kate looked curious, but said nothing. Dean looked exasperated.  
"What does it do?" He asked. Chris scrunched up his face and started flipping through pages.  
"I thought it was strange... (fipflip) that this spell isn't in our spellbooks.... (flipflip) ah, here it is!" Chris spoke while turning the pages. He gestured to a small paragraph on page 361. The children crowded behind Chris's small frame with a air of practice, like they had done this before. Chris pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his gray eyes shinning with knowledge and began to read:  
"The use of every spell leaves behind a magical 'residue'. The spell used, and characteristics of the wand determined the different characteristics of the residue. The Charm of Origin can make such residue visible. Characteristics of said residue can include color, intensity, size, shape etc. Characteristics tend to vary for every wizard, making it difficult to interpret and an unstable spell to use. On a side note, residue created by wandless magic (difficult and unreliable) show the caster's emotion and skill level instead of wand characteristics. Check page 1,095 for incantation."  
Amy and Lauren now looked interested against their better belief. Lauren said.  
"That could be really useful for Aurors, huh?" Chris nodded, shocked by their insight. Dean remained unsure. This was his younger brother, so he would be blamed if nobody like his idea. And he was in enough trouble already. Better get him to demonstrate the spell.  
"Let's try in the kitchen. Bound to be some spells in there from Mum and Dad."   
Kate remembered the letters and hoped Snuffles did *something*. Chris hoped he could find someone interested in casting the spell, because it was beyond his skills. Dean hoped the spell wouldn't flop and get him in more trouble. And the twins hoped somebody other than Mum and Dad had used spells in the kitchen, or this could be very boring. Maybe they could track down whoever had broke into their kitchen... 


	2. Slytherins Keep Secrets

Chapter 1  
  
Slytherins Keep Secrets  
  
Disclaimer- Tom Clancy owns Op-Center (I'm just borrowing), J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and everything connected to him and his famous scar, Taps isn't mine, but it's better than a phone using vibrator. Any bits of plot (grabs microscope) you find belong to me. I'm not making any money here, so please don't sue me, I can't pay you.  
  
A very grumpy Liam Bell 'popped' into the family kitchen. Newsboys were playing softly on the radio. He set down his magically summoned coffee when he realized he was still clutching it. He looked around the cheerful kitchen but stopped at the island (a bunch of cupboards or drawers with linoleum covering them all alone in the middle of a kitchen).  
All the children were huddled next to the island behind a dusty book. Chris was right in the thick of it, his dark head hovering over a page, reading something. What had he found now? The twins, bless their hearts, were trying to look disinterested while carefully re-reading what Chris had just read. Did having Slytherin as a house encourage then to hide positive feelings? Dean looked nervous? What had the head-strong (meaning skull, not brain) boy done now? And Katie... was sneaking glances at the mail? More puzzles. 'This day just keeps getting better...'   
"Alright everybody, party's over, move out! I have to speak with your mother."Now all everyone looked disappointed to varying degrees. The music vanished, leaving a gap in the air. Fey walked into the kitchen, wand in hand. She wondered 'What could he be worried about now?'  
Liam waited until the kitchen door was closed before checking and reinforcing the silencing charms on the doors. Once he was sure the spells worked, Liam slowly turned around to face his wife. He remembered listening under the door when his parents had important talks. He wasn't sure what would happen, but he didn't want the children to worry. Fear of the Dark Lord was bad enough. Did he really want them knowing they were on top of Sirius Black's hit list. Because friend or not, Liam was going after Black. He had a lot to answer for. 'To think. When I discovered my assignment, I wasn't sure if I could do it.' Liam what had taken him so long to put together the pieces? He was good with puzzles. If he hadn't figured out it until now, what about the other Aurors? Had they known, but not told him, because of his friendship with Sirius? He remembered the last time he saw Sirius.  
  
"Liam?" Liam turned around quickly, only to see a black haired man beckoning him into an empty room. Liam smirked and followed him.   
Once hidden in the empty room, Sirius shut the door. Liam's smirk broke into an all-out smile. Sirius looked off balance, and Liam knew he really shouldn't but...  
"So. A *godfather* Siri? I didn't know you had it in you." ...He couldn't help it. Something must have rubbed Sirius the wrong way, because he went defensive.   
"Really Liam. That was quite a while ago, so shut up about it already. There are more important things happening!" Liam's friend struggled not to rip Liam to shreds. Liam wasn't worried. After all, they had been friends since sometime in 1st year. Would Sirius really hurt him? Instead, he was interested. What could have Siri so nervous?  
"So what is happening?" Liam questioned, peering up at his taller friend. Sirius took a deep breath, than let it out slowly.  
"Okay. You know how James and Lily are, well." Sirius stumbled. Liam pushed his mouth back up. Sirius was stuttering? He quickly looked out the window. 'Well, if hell's frozen over, I can't see any evidence of it yet.' he thought. Sirius, busy with internal struggles, didn't notice. Then the dam broke.  
"Yesterday Professor Dumbledore called me to his office and told me James had chosen me for his secret-keeper and I had no clue what was going on so I just said what and Lily laughed at me and then Dumbledore explained about the Fidels Charm and I felt like an idiot I mean after all I'm supposed to be training to be an Auror and I can't remember such an important charm and James was laughing and I have to hurry and find him real soon and Peter too 'cause we're gonna perform the Charm today and what if it doesn't work?" Sirius gasped for air. Liam checked the window again. 'Pigs. Where are the flying pigs?' Liam wondered. Sirius had mispronounced the Fidelius Charm.  
"What about Remus?" Sirius went red in the face.  
"And Remus too. Can't forget about Remy, he'd kill me-"  
"S'okay Sirius. Calm down. Your the best Auror out there. Besides, you're James's *best friend*." Liam looked relived when Sirius smiled.  
"Sides, there's plenty of room in your soul." Sirius shook his head.  
"Yeah Liam. Too bad they can't use your brain." Liam and Sirius shared a smile. Now assured his friend wouldn't run away and hide, Liam opened the door.  
"Get outa here. Your friends need you." Liam felt like a mother sending her son away. Sirius started to walk out the door, but turned around.  
"Liam?" Liam waited.  
"Good Luck with your girlfriend, Fey, right?" Liam nodded.  
"I was thinking about... you know. Popping the question." Sirius snickered at his brown haired friend, currently turning a fascinating shade of magenta. He smile faded, and putting on a serious expression said,  
"Don't wait forever, kay? And remember, your my best friend too." Liam bit his lip.  
"Bye Sirius."  
"Bye Liam."  
  
'That was so long ago. Odd how clear some memories are.' Liam saw several puzzles waiting to be solved in his memory. But that could wait for another day. One when his loving wife wasn't looking quite so worried (much like the children had looked, had Liam taken the time to notice). And one day when his wife wasn't asking,  
"Liam, honey? What's wrong?"  
  
  
  
Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, woke up late again today. So he hurried through a brunch and headed to his office (poor man. He's got and office at his house). When he finally found his office behind the door that lead to the bathroom, he saw two owls waiting with mail. 'That's odd. Most owls arrive a breakfast.' He recognized one of the owls, it belonged to Remus Lupin. He started towards Remus's owl, but a smaller owl flew up to him first. The Lupin barn owl looked scandalized. Albus simply shrugged and reached to the letter. After all owls demanding their letter be opened first (owls are specially trained and prized for their manners) was nothing compare to offices that moved, not to mention the muggle inventions being used down the street. Flipping the envelop over, Dumbledore was amused by what he saw. Sirius was already breaking his word.  
The seal showed the Grim, Sirius Black's seal. An inside joke, Dumbledore guessed, remembering the look on Remus's face when he learned of Sirius's seal. Sirius was *supposed* to be staying with Remus. Of course, with Sirius supposed usually translated to wasn't.  
"So where is he now?" Albus wondered. There was only one way to find out. He broke the seal and removed Sirius's letter.  
Dear Albus,  
Remus and I decided to split up and cover more ground. Remy will be after the Non-Auror crew, I'm going to speak to Liam Bell. He's a good man, if I can win him over the rest of the Aurors should be easy. I have yet to get an opportunity to 'reveal' my identity. Anyone ever tell you Liam's got too many kids?  
Snuffles  
'Gruff and to the point. And disobeying orders. Couldn't be anyone but Sirius.' Dumbledore thought. Quite a bit was left unsaid, but Albus Dumbledore was not Order of Merlin, First Class for nothing. As his students knew, he had a knack for hearing the unspoken.  
The fact that Sirius had sent a letter at all and he was going to speak to one of the most difficult people for him to approach (much like Remus had been, Albus mussed) was the closest Sirius would ever come to an apology. Sirius Black may not be a student anymore, but he wanted to keep Dumbledore's respect just as much as first years, maybe more. Besides, Albus was quite sure Remus would apologize more than enough for the both of them.  
Picking up the remaining letter (the owl had flown out while he was reading) and slowly reading Remus's writing was a chore. Remus didn't disappoint. The werewolf's letter contained a detailed list of the crowd, who Remus had spoken to, how much they believed, possible traitors (only hints, Remus tried to see the best in everyone)the words 'I'm so terribly sorry' and 'Please forgive us' scattered every where. The letter also told who knew about Sirius. Or Snuffles, if you wanted his code name. Writing about Sirius Black would send every Ministry worker after you if it was intercepted. Snuffles had been Sirius's idea, and Dumbledore very much suspected Black was using that name as a Animagi and had told Harry to call him that. Why? Simply because Sirius wanted to see their faces when they heard each other talking about Snuffles. Dumbledore shuddered to think about all the different people he had gotten to call him Snuffles.  
As far as telling people about Sirius, it was a delicate subject among his graduating class, to put it lightly. Remus was well aware if it and proceeded with caution. About the man, Dumbledore also suspected Sirius had bullied Remus into splitting up. That would explain part of Sirius's extensive apology.  
It was good hearing two of his former pupils were safe and sound. Hopefully Sirius would stay at the Bell's house, children would do him some good. Being in Azkaban stripped him of joy, and who better to remind him of joy than children? Despite his 'gruff' ways, Sirius really liked kids.  
"He would have made a good Godfather for Harry." Albus said softly to himself, looking down at Sirius's letter. 'So many lives ruined...I wonder what happened to Tom? What made him to Lord Voldemort? And what is he doing now?'  
Dumbledore shook himself. It would do no good to stand here mopping, and if all went well, he would *know* what was going to happen. Then maybe, just maybe, he could put an end to broken lives.  
'And the promise of tomorrow hung in the air.'  
Hmmm. The promise of tomorrow. Maybe.   
Now where had he heard that?  
  
"Now how will I ever practice this spell?" Chris wailed. Lauren looked annoyed.  
"You can practice it in any room, Thomas." She sneered.  
"Besides, I want to know what's going on in there" Kate gestured towards the kitchen door. "Dad looked really worried." Kate expressed her own worries. Dean was way ahead of her, his ear pressed against the heavy wooden door. He shifted, listening for a thin spot. In desperation, he lowered his head to the floor and pushed his left ear next to the crack. Looking glum, he stood up again.  
"Nothing, not even a mumble." Amy rolled her eyes.  
"Duh. If whatever they're talking about so important, they cast silencing spells." Chris looked alarmed.  
"What could be that important?" He asked. Lauren smirked, playing for that ever-present audience.  
"I'll bet it has to do with Voldemort." Lauren said (score one for joint Detectives Amy & Lauren). Kate gasped.  
"Wha-who do you think you are? Certainly not Dumbledore-"  
"Professor Dumbledore, Kate. Be respectful." Chris interrupted. Kate sputtered. Dean looked shocked, but not enough to say anything.   
"Aren't you even shocked at Lauren's use of... *that* name?!" She shouted. Dean almost nodded, but caught himself. He wanted to hide.  
Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Chris turned all his attention to Kate.  
"Really, Katherine, are you that shocked? Lauren and Amy have made it a habit of theirs to undermined authority, including the Dark Lord's (said girls smirked with a superior air) and they tend to speak when they should be quiet." (said girls smiles droop)  
Dean, who had finally decided diving behind a table would be frowned upon, (he was also ashamed of his un-Gryffindor urges to be cowardly) added his piece. (Dean was aware of his disgrace and was trying to avoid confrontation. And he wanted to get on the twins good side, so why not agree with them?)  
"Headmaster told me once fear of a name increases fear of the thing..." He said slowly. Kate bowed her head in defeat.  
"Okay already! You win! You're right. I'll call ...Voldemort by his name. But we have more important things to be worried about. Like what Mom and Dad are saying!" Kate cried. Amy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Kate blinked.  
"Ah... Lauren?" Lauren looked up, her arms now crossed as well.  
"Yes?" She said it deliberately slow.  
"Do...do you have something else to say?" Kate looked embarrassed. Amy nodded.  
"Why thank you Kate. In fact, Lauren did have something else to say." Lauren looked up.  
"We... that is to say..." Lauren looked hesitant. She looked at Amy, who nodded permission. Lauren's confidence returned.  
"We know a place to listen in."  
  
"It's dusty up here..." Kate whispered.  
"Yeah, oddly enough, places you don't use, like an attic, can get dusty." Amy intoned, her voice heavy with sarcasm. Lauren shushed them.  
"We're almost there." She informed the others.  
"What is this miracle spy thing?" Dean asked.  
Amy pointed to a small metal rectangle in the floor.  
"That's it." She said proudly.  
"What, under the slits?" Dean asked, looking confused. Lauren sighed. Dean had no idea what it was. Amy answered his question.  
"This leads to the kitchen, so we can hear what Mother and Father say." Chris looked puzzled, but after a few moments of 'deep thinking', his eyes lit up.  
"I've heard about those. That right there's called a ventilator, or vent and-" Chris's voice rose far above a whisper and Amy clamped her hand over his mouth. Chris pushed her hand away and finished his explanation, voice back to a whisper.  
"I was just going to say I read about them in my book for Muggles Studies." Chris's voice was as dignified as possible. Lauren chuckled.  
"Sure Chris." She muttered, smiling indulgently. Amy glared at him.  
"Don't you know sound travels both ways through your vent? That's why we have to cast these." And then she cast a Silencing Charm around everyone upstairs and Lauren cast an Amplifying Spell on the noise that drifted up through the vent, not the speakers. This was very important, she explained. After all, everyone notices when they start shouting, and any plans of spying are ruined. (score two for Amy and Lauren, PIs) Dean looked around for a pad and pencil to take notes with. He started to mention how useful this would be for the Weasley twins, but stopped himself before the resident twins heard him. Omitting Dean's half-finished comment, the listeners stayed silent. The two magically amplified voices drifting up from the vent argued.  
"No." Came a voice, belonging to the children's adoptive mother, Fey Bell.  
"What do you mean, Fey?" Asked a lower-pitch, rougher voice. The children looked to each other. What where their parents talking about? Lauren gestured for them to stay silent, and Amy said softly,  
" Just wait." As if they weren't using any spells at all, just plain out-fashioned espionage.  
"I mean I won't let you put yourself in that kind of danger!" Fey Bell responded, her voice firm and unwavering as steel. Someone took several deep, calming breaths. They seemed to work, because Mr. Bell sounded much calmer, but the steel behind his voice remained unchanged.  
"Fey dear, I'm an Auror. I'm constantly on danger." He said slowly, deliberately.  
"Not from Sirius Black, you aren't!" She shouted. In the dim of the attic, surrounded by dust bunnies in every stage of development, the children all stared blankly at each other. They share almost identical facial expressions. Each one seemed to be asking the other if it was true, begging for denial. And when they couldn't deny what their ears had told them, they looked to another. 'Tell me it isn't true. Sirius Black?' Sirius Black, one of the most feared men in the wizarding world, the only person to escape Azkaban and the Demeanors, was after their dad?  
"We're all going to die." Chris said softly, in a dead sort of voice. The other children flinched. Their ritual of death was interrupted by the voices downstairs.  
"he's not after me yet Fey, I'm head of the case against him!" Liam tried not to lose his patience. It was his nerves getting to him. He wasn't scared. The children upstairs were once again shell-shocked. One of the twins murmured,  
"But he never gets field assignments...what's going on?" Dean and Chris shrugged. Dean was too glad he wasn't going to die (yet) to care. Chris wasn't sure either. All the children had heard their father talk about work, and he had never mentioned actually working in the field. Paperwork, sure. But an actual case, that involved advanced Auror skills and was extremely dangerous? What was going on?  
"Beats me." Kate replied. She wondered if anyone knew what was going on anymore. But their parents weren't done yet.  
"Why is this so important to you?" Mrs. Bell asked. She sounded honestly curious. Liam Bell hesitated. The children leaned closer to the grate, on their hands and knees, crowded close together. One of Dean's arms ended up hooked with Kate's but they didn't say a word.  
"Well..."  
"Yes?" Fey sensed victory was close at hand and pressed her opinions. She wanted to know what was going on. Little did she know everyone else did, too. The children heard someone sigh.  
"it all started with a bunch of us kids, fresh out of Hogwarts. Arabella, Mandy, James, Caleb, Sirius and quite a few more. From every house, it didn't matter to us."  
"And you?" Several children and one wife held their breath.  
"And me. Most of us were training to be Aurors, and like the foolhardy children we were, we took matters into our own hands." The children heard someone gasp. A very startled voice asked,  
"What just do you...mean by that, Liam?" The children's adoptive father took a deep breath before answering,  
"We formed a team of like-minded people to fight against the Death Eaters. I'm sure the Ministry knew about us, but they never questioned us. Naturally, Albus Dumbledore heard and became the official director. Merlin know what we would have done without his leadership. Anyway, we had everything. Spies, Diplomats, Psychologists, Ministry Workers, Search and Rescue, Experts in, well, anything we could think of..."  
"Experts?" Fey Bell scoffed, almost amused. You have to give her credit for backbone, all the children had gone into severe shock, but she keeps asking questions.   
"Well, they were self-appointed, but they were the best we could find with what we had. Even with limited resources, Dumbledore stubbornly refused anyone but the best with few exceptions."  
"What in the Rowena's name do you mean by all that? You're being cryptic again." Fey sounded interested, so the comment lacked any real bite. Another deep breath followed.  
"I'll give you an example. Mandy Lynch, muggles. She was muggle-born, one of the few to survive constant Death Eater attacks. Oddly enough, she took an interest in muggles things akin to Author Weasley. She read muggles books constantly. She read *anything* muggle she could get her hands on. She was forever trying to explain the mechanics of Elevator, Aeroplane, Telli-fome and even had muggle posters covering her walls. Did'cha know, she came up with a muggle name for us. Called us the Op-Center. Crazy that one." There was a stunned silence. Dean whistled.  
"Can you imagine if they were all that obsessed?" Chris nodded.  
"That would be scary." Kate, who had been about to say 'No kidding.' held back when Fey said something.  
"Op...Center?"  
"Yeah, strange, huh? Mind you, not everyone was quite that enthusiastic. I asked her about the Op-center once. Said it was in one of her books, by a man named...ah...Thomas...Nancy?" Liam's voice grew increasingly hesitant as she struggled deeper into old memories. Silence reigned as the fact that Liam was not joking sunk in. This was a lot of information for one person to absorb. A lot of things you never knew about to learn in a few minutes. The children upstairs stared at each other in wonder. Dad was *cool*.  
Fey was having trouble adjusting to everything, which took away from her arguing skills. Still, she was the only one who remembered they had been having an argument.  
"Dear... what does this have to do with Black?"  
"It's a bit of everything. You see, I was a good friend of Sirius Black until about the end of third year, when he met Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. They all worked at Op-Center. Although Peter and Remus weren't Aurors in training, James insisted. Lupin turned out to be one heck of a diplomat. Peter, well, I hate to speak rudely of the dead, but he couldn't do much of anything in the Op-Center. He ended up carrying plans and letters."  
"I remember the boys. Joined at the hip, all four." There was a brief pause in the talking downstairs while Fey and Liam Bell remembered days gone by. Fey believed her husband would continue when he felt ready. After all, the poor man had been forced to share several secrets with her already. She was feeling guilty. Oddly enough, she was able to except her husband's stories without too much disbelief. After all, Liam was serious when it mattered. Upstairs, on the other hand, was buzzing with talk.  
"Dad knew-" Lauren sputtered.  
"The Sirius Black." Amy interrupted.  
"And they were friends with-" Dean asked.  
"*James* Potter? As in the father of Harry Potter? And Peter Pettigrew?" Chris interrupted him.  
"Whoa. That's just amazing! Who knew our dad kept such famous company?" Kate wondered. Silently she pondered what else he hadn't told them. She wasn't the only one.  
"So Black killed two of his best friends." Chris said, always one to connect things.  
"Cold-hearted bugger." Kate's response was heart-felt.  
"Don't worry Kate, you can use strong language." Dean joked. Amy and Lauren smiled. Kate opened her mouth do just that, but weather it would be about Dean or Sirius Black we shall never know. As luck had it, Chris was already set to make another 'connection'.  
"What about ...Remus Lupin? Didn't you mention a Professor Lupin once." Dean nodded, and Amy said.,  
"Yeah. He was a werewolf, too."   
"Just a year before you started at Hogwarts." Lauren added.   
"So your Professor was a school friend of Sirius Black... the Year he escaped?" Chris prompted. Everyone looked startled at the implications.  
"Do-do you think... Professor Lupin got kicked out because he was helping Black get into the school?" Kate said in a hushed voice. Chris prepared to respond, but he was cut short by Liam Bell. His voice took on a dead tone.  
"Near the...end, must of us were being made Aurors, including myself, James and Lily went into hiding. There were several good reasons. As you know Voldemort had something against James. James never took me into his confidence, so I don't know what. Whatever it was, we never the Dark Lord wouldn't stop till all the Potters were dead." Amy muttered something about 'a bad book' and everyone (including Lauren) glared at her. Unaware, Liam continued his 'tale'.  
"Young Harry himself was another reason. Lily's argument was one of the key things that got James to agree. One of the most important reasons was a traitor. Arabella, who had informers everywhere, even among the Dark Lord's ranks, told me we had a spy among us. I'm sad to say that's how we lost Matt and Joy Coon, Kyle Thomas, Mandy Lynch, and... so many others. I'm sure you know the rest of the story. The Potters went into hiding, and died for the light. Sirius betrayed them, remember? I can only think of one person he would have betrayed James and Lily Potter to." Fey gasped. This was way over her head. Chris gulped, and Dean's eyes hardened. Amy and Lauren looked mad, but Amy unable to resist, muttered,  
"What an original story..." Lauren glared at her. Lauren privately remained her this was the story about exactly *who* had killed their parents. After all, how many Matt and Joy Coons could there be? At the same time, Liam continued.  
"Yes. Voldemort. And if he was a Death Eater... think about it. There was a Death Eater among us. Sirius was also the spy in the Op-Center, so he...condemned so many to die. Coon, Lynch, Thomas..." Liam trailed off. Everyone upstairs could almost feel him being hugged. Liam seemed determined to finish.  
"After, when I heard about what happened... I didn't realized he was the informer.. I was just.... His best friends! Remember when I came home?" Liam seemed to be struggling through tears, and the dead tone had vanished.  
"I remember..." She said quietly. "I never knew why it hurt you so much."  
"It was... indescribable. My best friend... and I never knew... I didn't even realize...until today. I never...a spy?" Liam's voice was so full of sorrow. 'I should have known, all those deaths' He thought. And he never stopped any of them. Not event he last. He couldn't speak anymore. It was just too hard. There wasn't anything left to say. except 'It's my fault...'  
Upstairs, Amy leaned on Lauren's shoulder, trying not to look like she needed support. She was just tried, that was all. Not big deal. Father's soppy story wasn't making her cry, either. That was all this Merlin-forsaken dust. Dean hugged Chris, who was biting his lip. Kate drew everyone she could reach (namely Amy, Lauren and half of Dean and Chris) into a group hug.  
"What was that for?" Amy hissed. Kate shrugged. She hadn't missed Amy's wet eyes. She also hadn't missed the mentioning of Dean and Chris's father and Amy and Lauren's parents. She hadn't missed the lack of mention of her own parents. With a forced smile, she said,  
"I'm just glad we're a family." Dean nodded from his position above Chris. Amy lost it and everyone pretended not to hear the loud sniffing noises. Dean took note of his sister's expression. Amy made ruder comments when she was trying to hold back emotion, more likely pain. 'Don't we all?' Dean pondered. However, his somber expression was cut short when Amy stopped scrubbing her eyes and Lauren helped her to stand. Chris looked up from his nest in Dean's arms, unconcerned with Dean's blush at his place. They were brothers. He noted he wasn't the only one to be deeply effected by Liam's story. After all, Liam was well loved by all of them, and misery loves company. It was good to have family, especially when you needed a snuggle-err, emotional support. Dean sifted his weight and Chris stood up.  
"I think we should leave now." He said softly.  
They left.  
  
The phone rang.   
The electric rendition of Taps roused Jamie from a sound sleep where she had been dozing on the couch. Grumbling, she patted the couch for her cell. She may have been grumbling, but that was purely habit. Jamie never woke up without a few minutes of good grumbling about wackos with guns, the sun's bad timing, exactly where news reporters how said coffee was bad could shove it... world hunger, stuff like that. All and all, it was a relaxing habit. Helped her get out a little bit of frustration about the shoddy condition of the world around her. No, despite her grumbling, she was quite curious.   
Who had the gall to call her at this time of night? Jamie Trillion's temper was a legend on the East Coast. Well, maybe not that bad, but close. Her employees had been told in a no-nonsense voice she didn't do mornings. She planned to buy the tee-shirt when she got a raise. And the time from the moment her head touched the pillow (about 1:30) to her first coffee (varies) qualified as a morning.  
Jamie was so curious when she finally found her cell phone under one of the couch cushions she smiled. Her smiled grew wider when she read Caller ID. The words Caller Unknown confirmed her suspisions. This was a complete stranger.  
"Talk." She asked, voice hoarse.  
"Is this Jamie Trillin?" A vaguely familiar voice answered. Where had she heard that voice before?  
"Speaking." She kept her answers to a word so it was more understandable.  
"You mean you can hear me? Really hear me?" She could almost place the voice, who was it? And why were they being such an idiot?  
"Yeah- wait? Carl?" Finally she remembered. The voice belonged to Carl, her employer and head of the laboratory she worked at. His phone must be acting up, because his voice was a little lower than when he normally talked to her. And he must be using his home phone, not being good friends with him she had never registered it.  
"Yes. This is Carl Livingston, you employer. We've been bought by a company in Britain, and we move with all our material to London immediately."   
Carl then proceeded to give her the details of the move, mispronouncing airplane (aero plane?).  
Jamie was now fully awake and quite shocked. Wasn't this a little... sudden? And didn't a buy-out involve a little more paperwork. Hell, didn't it involve forewarning before something this serious? And why this lab? Jamie had left her television on, and I Love Lucy threw black-and-white shadows every which way.  
'Why us?' she wondered, not even amazed she was thinking quite clearly without a sip of coffee. Something just didn't click. Why had Carl been so... formal? And why had he been uncertain I would hear him? Why where we moving to Britain? Why so fast? All the speed turned her head.  
She couldn't figured out why this lab was being bought. What separated her workplace from so many others across the world? Then she remembered the test tube... they couldn't know about that... could she leave it? No, no She wasn't sure what would happen. It would have to come.  
TBC  
  
A/n- Thank you anyone and everyone for reading! Please, please review! I'll love you forever! Anything you'd like to say (even flame) would be nice right now. As for any questions you might have had about the changes in Kate Bell's name, Her father (Liam) commonly calls her Katie. It's pretty much his pet name for her. I mean, I'm sure he's got better ones, but give the man a break, he was under a little emotional stress in the last chapter. Katherine is her birth name, but people (such as Amy and Lauren) use it to annoy her, be specific (Chris, not that he knows many Katherine's) or when she's in trouble (adults). There is actually a difference between Silencing and Deafening Charms (I didn't create it though). Silencing Charms keep all sound originating inside the bubble (sound barrier) inside but allow sounds originating outside the bubble to come in. Deafening Charms work the opposite way, allowing no sound it but letting sound out. Op-Center is actually a book by Tom Clancy, who has written several other things like the Sum of All Fears (the movie's based on it), The Hunt For Red October and Rainbow Six (that was good). Anywho, if you *actually* read the entire author's note, I bow done to you, 'O dedicated reader. Your amazing. Thanks!  
Dweia's Double (I'm sure you now my name, I just can't help it....) 


	3. You Can't Chose Family

Chapter 2  
  
You Can't Chose Family  
  
Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter or any of his friends. No matter how much I want them, I don't really own anything from the books folks. They belongs to J.K.Rowlings. That's why it's her name on the cover, not mine. However, if you find any plot (it's in there *somewhere* I know it...) I can claim that as my own. MINE! Op-Center still belongs to Tom Clancy (what is it with authors and ownership? I'm haven't made any money off this crazy story of mine, so please don't sue me. I don't own enough to make it worth your while.  
  
Thanks a million to my first reviewer animegirl-mika, I love you soooooooooooooooooooooo much. You made my whole day bright and happy, and when I write melodramatic stuff like this, that's saying something. Spectacular? ~blushes vividly~ About Sirius, I have no real idea when he plans to show his face. I only know sometime before the real plot starts to bust up lives and after all the kids start to absolutely hate his guts. Sirius hasn't really told me yet. ~glares at Sirius~ I can definably say before school starts.   
....~Blinks~ Wait a minute, somebody else reviewed? Oh my gosh, somebody pinch me ~pinch~. It's still there! Wow, thank you, animalcrackers. This is just beyond me ~sniff~. Your review means a lot to me. Well, here it is, Chapter 2. Hope you like it!  
Allemande: Yay! This has got to be my day! Somebody else reviewed. And they still like it. I might just pass out with joy! ~waits patiently to pass out. nothing happens~ Oh dear, I'm sorry. I meant to pass out, it must be all this studying screwing up my brain (worse than it already is). I understand, I did mess up the perspective. It's been a long time since I wrote the Prologue, I've had it sitting around my house for a while before I posted it. I though it'd be fun to write in 1st person, but there was so much else to tell, and different people to write about... I forgot all about it. Consider it a flight of fantasy that never got fixed, or something like that. I love you too!  
  
Upon entering the wizarding world, one of the first things children just excepted to Hogwarts always look for is toy stores. It makes sense. After all, it seems their dreams are all coming true. The voice of reason, with opinions parallel to their parent's, has lost to that little voice in the corner of a child's mind that dared to dream about magic. 'Maybe, just maybe, Mom and Dad could be wrong about magic' has become a triumphant 'Magic! So I didn't just imagine, it's right here, in front of me.' Feeling more confidence about their ability to tell what's real and what's still imagination, the line becomes blurred. Imagination takes flight. Suddenly they remember wishes about having a teddy bear that talks, picture books that read themselves, flying carpets and all manner of impossible things. The child wonders 'Could they be real, too?'  
So eleven year-olds clutch newly bought wands, anxiously peering in every corner 'Where are they?'   
And parents weave and dodge to stay behind a bobbing head, carrying the brunt of their offspring's school supplies. patience running dangerously low. 'What could they be looking for?' the parents wonder. Sadly, this discovery of magic was just that. A discovery. No great expanding of horizons, or recalling or childhood dreams. So they had no idea why their son or daughter was thoroughly searching every street sign. For all they knew, the kid was looking for magical dust that they couldn't see either. Finally, after passing Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions a forth time, they snag their elusive prey and wrench them out of the way of passerby. Struggling to keep frustration out of their voice, they ask,  
"Why are you still looking? We have your school supplies. It's getting late." The adults check their watches, sigh when they remember it stopped working and wait for an answer. Few people, children or otherwise, feel comfortable explaining the inner workings of their hearts. Few children even know how to explain their need to confirm imagination. In much the same way they could never explain how the tree in the backyard dropped vibrant red and yellow leaves in the heat of summer or how their holiday picture clothes walked away with no-one in them or how their dog disappeared, but barking sounds could still be heard and the dog food left inside overnight still got eaten or... well, you get the idea. They just needed. Some tried to articulate their desires, and they end up asking a random witch or wizard. Most just shrugged, and both parent and child went home, child determined to ask someone on the train. Other children would understand.  
Whatever the circumstances, every muggleborn child was robbed of their magical toy supermarket. On the train to Hogwarts, young witches and wizards heard gossip and learned about Rooms.   
When a child could talk, parents could buy Room Spells. Every room spell could be personalized depending on the child a room was for, or how many. Room spells commonly had tree different parts. The servant version, used on an empty room, would create the furnishings the parent asked for (wallpaper, carpet, a few durable toys), the user version, cast on the child (or children) the room was for, and the control version, for parents to monitor the use of each room. Once all three parts had been cast, the actual room spell was activated, and only when all parts had been cast would the spell become active.  
And this is how the room spell worked; if a child with a user spell cast on them wanted a toy broomstick, they would ask the parent with the control spell. Said parent could 'command' the room spell ( and therefore the room) to give the child a toy broom, and 'poof'. There it was. Also, when children had been using room spells long enough, they became connected, so thoughts would trigger commands and rooms would respond to their user's feelings. Magic had a way of growing on you like that.  
Muggleborn children were astounded. Room spells went beyond their wildest dreams. Well, perhaps not beyond their wildest dreams, but beyond the dreams they'd dared hope were real. Unfortunately, room spells required an extensive background check, bags of galleons, not to mention a grown witch of wizard to cast to spell. Interestingly enough, rumors hinted their was another option. New children looked for someone to tell them about it.   
The other option with room spells turned out to be exclusively for children of Ministry workers. Even though they couldn't use this new spell, muggleborn curiosity was aroused. So after scarfing down Licorice Wands, Cauldron Cakes and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and leaving souvenirs on their shirts, children looked once more for wizarding born children.  
It turned out the rumor they were following up on was a closely guarded Ministry secret. Or so upperclassmen whispered importantly to first years. Special room spells could be cast without a control version is the user spell was changed just so. Instead of verbal permission (commands from control version), knowledge could be taken directly from the 'users' subconscious, the 6th and 7th years said. Nobody could fool their subconscious, and if a child 'knew' something was wrong, the room would deny the command. This was very hush-hush, of course. Children of the Ministry were targets for kidnapping, and a spell that connected to the sub-conscience could be extremely dangerous. All two-part room spells where canceled in fear back when You-Know-Who had been raising in power. Who knew what he could have been capable of if he learned to use them against the wizarding world. Children's imagination (and magic) were quite powerful and unpredictable. Naturally, room spell had been re-cast upon You-Know-Who's defeat and were currently in use everywhere. This statement was said with a bitter note in it, and students who had known or remembered the fallen Hogwarts Champion had a special glint in their eyes.  
Back in their seats, muggleborn children sat in awe of the magical world they had so recently entered. Many had a sense that quite a bit of the conversation had been left unspoken. They wondered, maybe their was more to magical than waving a wand and instantly getting what they wanted. Many remembered You-Know-Who and shuddered. He was something to avoid, nobody needed to tell them that. Some of them imagined how much everyone would look up to them if they defeated this You-Know-Who. They were wizards now, they could handle anything. The more reasonable children just wanted to stay away from You-Know-Who. Maybe, they thought, being part of all this magic was dangerous. Years later, when just who the Dark Lord was and what he had done, they become truly scared. Almost like a wave of homesickness, they would wake up after a nightmare and wish they could go back to not knowing about magic.  
  
Madam Fey Bell used her arithmetic ability to create Room Spells (not an uncommon job), and Mister Liam Bell worked with the Aurors, so naturally they had a room spell for their children without diving too far into their purse.  
By silent agreement, all the Bell children met in their Room. Down the hall, past the steps and across from their parent's room was the wizarding equivalent of a play room. The room was accustomed to giving the children decorations in their own house coloring, so the room currently looked like a splattered canvas. Everyone had pulled more or less comfortable chairs against opposite walls. A large blob of forest green shot through with pastel green spirals covered the wall the twins shared and was creeping onto the walls adjacent to it. The green wound it's way up to the ceiling, surrounded by two smaller splashed of red. One was vibrant blood-red (Dean was sitting in front of it), the other faint and hinting of pink, a fact that never ceased to remind Kate of her younger years. Pink had been an important color then. Lastly, facing the twins with his chair back propped against the door, was Chris. Surrounding him was a blue teal that filled the remaining space, holding it's own again the opposing colors. Chris, being the last one in, closed the door behind him and set down a thick book from somewhere. The book contained an owl-by-order pamphlet stuck somewhere in the middle of the book, most likely a bookmark.  
From their positions against the walls, as far away from each other as possible, each child offered a prayer to whatever supernatural deity was listening for silence. They had been instructed never to use spells in the play-room (other spells might interfere with the Room spell). The room heard them and the birds stopped singing. Dean grinned and started to talk. Nothing came out of his mouth, and everyone started chuckling silently. Eventually Lauren got a brainwave (when she stopped laughing) and wished for only a silencing charm to be placed around the play room. The bird's song came back, and everyone was reminded it was still early in the afternoon. Kate, who had been not-laughing the hardest, became heard at the tail end of a snort. She quickly shut her mouth and shirted self-consciously in her seat. Dean spoke up, trying again to cover the lack of talking and halt any pig jokes before they began.  
"So." He said. Dean realized his attempt at conversation had failed and looked embarrassed. Kate shot him a grateful look. Now she was no longer the center of ridicule. Chris looked down a t his book and raised an eyebrow at Dean from his side of the room. The meaning was obvious. Chris was telling his brother if Dean couldn't come up with anything more interesting than that he was going to read. Kate tried to return the favor.  
"So." She said. Amy smirked.  
"Is it just me, or does anyone else hear an echo in here?" Amy commented. For once her twin sister seemed unwilling to continue torture and was looking to Chris. Chris looked thoughtful. Amy looked venomous.  
"Remember what Dad said about the Op-Center?" Chris asked the congregation. Amy rolled her eyes.  
"Father's said a lot today. Be specific." Chris chose not to respond to Amy sarcasm, instead he took her remark at face value and became more specific.  
"He mentioned something about the Op-Center having a Search and Rescue department. He also said something about people dying because of Black." Chris explained his train of thought. Amy glared even more, but Chris was starring off into space. Dean and Lauren looked sadly at Chris. Lauren spoke up.  
"Father told us our parents died fighting Voldemort. And ah... some other stuff." Chris looked up and stared from Amy to Lauren to Dean. They all looked down, hiding knowledge about their parents.  
"Why didn't you...?" Chris asked, hurt obvious in his voice. Dean sighed, as the details of his parent's deaths were too great a burden to carry any longer.  
"They told me just last year. I don't think they're going to tell you till your forth year, too." Dean tried to explain. Amy and Lauren nodded. Amy excused how"They told us in second year, but Amy was really upset. Totally freaked out. I guess they decided to wait longer for you." Kate nodded. She knew Amy had always been the more emotional of the twins, and she tried to hide it by becoming even more sarcastic or making crueler comments. She hid it well too. Either that, or Kate didn't know emotional turmoil when she saw it. Wouldn't surprise her in the least if that was true.   
Understanding had come in third year, when a biting remark on Kate's Quidditch skills had left her crying. Kate had sat in the play room, the walls bright pink despite her protest (Gryffindor colors please), Lauren had come to her. With the air of someone revealing a huge secret, Lauren had whispered,  
"She doesn't mean it. Amy's just sad." Kate had looked up curiously at Lauren, her tears still drying on her cheeks.  
"What do you (sniff) mean by that?" Lauren shrugged and walked away. If the little Gryffindor didn't understand now, she probably never would. She really hadn't understood, so she had turned to her friends for an explanation. Amy walked back into the room, outwardly calm, and Kate was glad she had asked Markus. Unlike Dean, who was confused at why Amy had left at all. Kate's school friend, Markus Flint had graduated last year, but if anyone understood people, it was Markus. Being a Slytherin, he generally used his perception to make people's lives a living hell. Luck for Amy, she was a Slytherin and so Markus would never have tormented her. Markus never tormented Slytherins, except first years, but everybody tortured first years. It was an unspoken law of Hogwarts. Kate's one-time friend claimed he avoided insulting Slytherins because it was important to keep up the facade that Slytherins would unite against a common enemy. Kate had refrained for mentioning everyone thought Slytherins were backstabbing murderers and wouldn't ally themselves with Merlin himself. Kate shrugged off her memories and spoke up.  
"Amy, Lauren, Dean?" She asked. Said individuals looked at Kate.  
"If you know what happened to your parents, why didn't you tell anyone else? Dean, why didn't you tell Chris?" Kate asked them. Dean looked embarrassed.  
"Mom and Dad said we couldn't tell anyone." Dean said slowly. It was obvious to Kate (who really couldn't read someone to save her life) that Dean's answer wasn't the whole truth. Amy must have felt the same way, because she didn't scoff at his answer, lacking as it was.  
Dean and the twins shared an understanding look. Kate just didn't understand how important the identity of their parents was, how much a part of them it was. Telling other people, even just her, was like giving away a piece of themselves. But then,  
"You know who your parents are. They live here. They didn't die at the hands of Death Eaters and traitors." Amy voiced Dean's, Lauren's and her own opinion in the matter. Kate looked shocked.  
"No they're not." She said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lauren looked confused.  
"Sure they are. I mean... look at you!" Lauren countered. Kate snorted. Amy sat quietly.  
"Yeah. Look at me. Really look at me? Do Mom or Dad look anything like me?" Kate explained , annoyance plain in her voice. The truth finally dawned on Chris. Kate Bell compared to Liam and Fey Bell. There was little that could be compared. They didn't look anything alike. Kate's dirty blonde hair and blue eyes couldn't have come from Fey's brown hair and hazel eyes or Liam's auburn hair and brown eyes. Liam boasted a tall, stocky frame and Fey was more of a willowy tall, Kate was of middling height and a heavy build. This might of had more to do with their respective lifestyles than anything else, but they really didn't look at all alike. Fey and Liam tan quite easily, but Kate couldn't go outside on a sunny day for long without a sunburn somewhere (usually the bridge of her nose). The differences were shocking. 'Why didn't we notice before?' Chris wondered. He guessed it was because they had never looked for it. Chris, Dean, Amy and Lauren all had their own lives to worry about, their own missing real parents to look for. It seemed crazy to taint Kate's normal life (for a witch, anyway) with suspicions.  
"Did they tell you?" Chris asked, breaking through the stunned silence. Kate looked thoughtful.  
"I don't think they've come right out and said anything..." She confessed. Dean looked outraged. To be more specific, he looked like a thunderstorm about to burst.  
"Well then you don't really *know*, do you? Think it's fun to be adopted? Think it's in style to call people you've never met parents? Some kind of game, huh?" Dean shouted. By the time he had reached the end of his speech his arms were in the air, flailing about in righteous indignation. Lauren look vaguely annoyed, Amy was starring elsewhere. Chris, shocked at his brother's outburst and Kate's hurt look, muttered something to himself that sounded vaguely like 'stupid Gryffindor'. Lauren mouthed 'I give it two minutes' across the room to Chris. Chris nodded. He wasn't quite sure what Lauren was talking about, but something had to happen soon.  
Dean waited for Kate's response, panting softly like he had just run a mile or two. Kate calmly squinted at something over Dean's right shoulder, only her watery eyes and the faint red stain on her cheeks any indication she had heard Dean. Dean, seeing her lack of response and thinking it meant he wasn't good enough to even be listened to (what, was her past just too mysterious for him?) turned purple. Amy looked far away, and Kate spoke.  
"Actually Dean, not thack... wait! No, scratch that! Ahem." Kate cleared her throat. "Lets try that again. I do remember a conversation that hinted I was adopted. On my birthday. Dad said when I was born... ah... angels sung. I asked if the angels would sing today, or something like that, and Dad said they might, this was the day they found me. The Mom nudged him and said it was time to eat cake. Which was odd, because we hadn't eaten dinner yet. And you know how Mom is about mealtime." Kate's voice had a distant quality to it. Then she turn and looked Dean straight in his brown eyes, darkened almost to black by emotion.  
"Besides Dean, your parents didn't die in the Dark Lord's reign of Terror. Who says they even died at Death Eater hands. The Thomas character's probably your uncle." Dean growled. Everyone looked rather startled including Dean himself. Lauren was so startled she didn't mention to Kate that Amy was the one to mention parents being killed by Death Eaters. Dean wasn't ready to give up his argument yet, he was too deep to just back out now. Besides, Kate and her talk of Death Eaters brought up thinks he didn't want to think about.  
"And how do you know that, missus high and mighty?" Dean asked, a malicious tone in his voice. Chris cut everyone off.  
"I'm only twelve. Voldemort was defeated by Harry potter (Dean's chest swelled with pride. He was in the same house as *the* Harry Potter) fourteen years ago. Death Eaters don't just go and murder people, especially when their master is gone." Chris matter-of-factly answered. Dean looked crestfallen. Chris was right. But Gryffindors are know for their stubbornness (among other things), and Dean Thomas wasn't about to give up yet. Just because it looked hopeless didn't mean it really was.  
"So Kate, when was this birthday of yours?" Dean asked politely.   
"Ah....." Kate had no idea, obviously.  
"Don't know? What a shame. Could it be just made it up?" Dean asked, his voice heavy with false pity. Kate looked down, defeated. But Dean wasn't over yet.  
"And so, you're willing to forget the parents you have right now, great people, for what? Emptiness? What would you pretend you are? Voldemort's love child?" He spat, the contempt heavy in his voice. Kate's shoulders closed in, her knees came up to her chin and she hugged them like a lifeline. 'You-know-Voldemort's love child?' Kate shuddered. 'That's just...ew.'  
"I....I don't know." Kate's words tumbled out, muffled only be her knees. Lauren looked at Dean.  
"Do you see us making fun of your lack of parents?" Lauren asked. Dean flinched and shock his head.  
"Then leave her alone." Lauren finished. The 'or else' part was implied, not said. Lauren looked over at Kate, but she was busy starring into the abyss. Lauren sighed. What did Gyffindors get out of saving each other's butts?  
"He's right Lauren... I don't really know. Who am I trying to fool?" She said sadly, half to herself.  
"That doesn't mean he has to be such a bastard about it." Lauren replied, glaring at Dean some more. Dean was desperately trying to become one with the floor. 'One with the stone, one with the wood...' He was silently chanting.  
Amy blinked rapidly, like she was coming out of a sound sleep. Silently she surveyed the mess around her. Kate was starring miserably at the wall, Chris was mumbling to himself and absently patting the ground around him, looking for his book, currently in his left hand. Lauren was trying to murder Dean with her glare, and by the petrified look on Dean's face, he was anxious to comply. She wondered what she had missed.  
"Look everybody, I don't think now is the best time to create divisions." Amy said. Chris looked up. He was an emotional wreck and willing to do anything to keep from thinking.  
"What do you mean by that?" He asked.  
"I mean, this can be classified as difficult times, right? We're all emotionally screwed right now, right?" Chris snorted. *That* was the understatement of the week. Amy continued without glancing in Chris's direction.  
"We're a family, so me need to stick together. So maybe we aren't real flesh and blood. Who really cares? Are you all that shallow? So lets quit all this fighting." Amy said from her side of the room. It was one of the longest speeches she had ever made without some sarcastic comment, and was extremely proud of it. She meant everything she had said.   
Chris smiled and nodded. Kate pulled herself outwards, smiled a watery smile at Amy and Lauren, unhooked herself and scooted her chair towards the center of the room. Lauren stopped glaring at Dean, (she had seen Kate's smile and got a small glimpse of the *why* of Gryffindors) and he stopped cowering. Eventually everyone dragged their chairs inwards so everybody was shoulder to shoulder, chairs scrapping. Cautiously, Kate leaned over and snagged Laurens hand. Lauren started, then shrugged and grabbed Amy's hand. Amy slowly reached out and clasped Dean's hand, looking determined to overcome her house's moral codes for the sake of family. With painstaking slowness, Amy's hand closed around Dean's hand, the other of which was already clutching Chris's, who was holding Kate's.  
I'd like to take some time out to remind you about the colors of this great play room. Remember how all the children had their house colors on the walls? I forgot to mention how obvious the color barriers where. All the Bell children stayed by their walls. Red stayed away from green and didn't mingle unless forced. Now all the children were close together, holding hands no less. There was a defendant 'togetherness' to the whole thing. The blue, green and red that had been contained inside distinct barriers bended together until the entire wall was a massive rainbow with watercolor intensity. It was a stunning metaphor. Not that anybody noticed.  
Lauren started talking, because she had a feeling her twin had missed quite a bit of the conversation.   
"Okay. Let's say Kate is right. She was adopted too." True to form, Amy shot Lauren a grateful look. Dean looked mildly outraged, but deiced for the sake of the *family* to listen. Lauren decided this Gryffindor saving arse thing wasn't so bad. "Why would Mr. and Mrs. Bell wait so long to tell us? It muse be something really bad." Kate looked nervous. She had thought of that, but the possibility her parent's past was too awful to tell until she was 17 never seemed real until someone else said it. Amy reminded her twin.  
"Family, 'member? They've been Mom and Dad up till now..." Lauren nodded at Amy. Chris looked around, and squeezed Kate's hand.  
"Maybe her parents were Death Eaters." He said in a hushed voice. Kate gulped. That was enough reason in her mind to not be told. It was also darn scary.  
"Death Eaters?" She whispered back. 'Please let someone say it's not true, please oh please oh please...' Dean cleared his throat. Lauren raised an eyebrow at him.  
"I don't think that's enough reason for our father." Dean said quietly.  
"What do you mean?" Kate asked, quickly, ignoring the hurt in Dean's voice. Any shred of prove again the Death Eater parent idea was to be followed up on at all costs.  
"Well, you see... my father was a Death Eater." Silence reigned.  
"You mean your-our parents told you more about... ah... your other parents and you didn't tell us?" Amy growled. Dean glared at her, an action which surprised several people, including Amy herself. Apparently Dean's father (and Chris's) was a painful subject for the older Thomas. Dean proceeded to tell everyone what he had left out earlier. Lauren looked increasingly uneasy.   
"You see, Dad told me about my other father was uncovered as a Death Eater. His name was Gene, I think. Anyway, Gene goes along living his happy Death Eater life" dean scowled at his own sarcasm. His dark expression made it clear any Death eater's life would be made less than pleasant when *he* got a hold of them. "Voldemort is defeated and the..." Not wanting to say the words, Dean taped his left forearm. There was o need to explain. Dean meant the Dark Mark. "mark turned white. Gene was dark-skinned, more so even than me, so it stuck out. I couple of years later, when the Ministry had sufficiently regrouped enough to round up the Death Eaters, Gene was caught. He was sentenced to life in Azkaban, not uncommon. He died a few years later. Our mother" Dean looked towards Chris and squeezed his hand. "Was heartbroken. She didn't want anything to do with Gene. But she was pregnant with Chris. She took care of you as long as she had to, then pushed us off to whoever would take us. Then she left for the Americas." Dean paused and gulped down the lump in his throat. "Gene's and our Mother's only family were already dead, so Dad took us. He was married to Mum by then. I think he wonders if he made a mistake in taking us. I think he think we'll be...like Gene." Dean finished in a rush. Chris noticed Dean had refrained from calling their birth father by anything but Gene. Dean bit his lip. Kate looked sadly at Dean. No wonder he had been so happy to get into Gryffindor, so enthusiastic about hating Slytherins. And why he had been so angry about her Death Eater comment. Kate blinked, thinking back to father's confessions.   
"Wait! Maybe your father worked for the Op-Center... you know, as a spy against Voldemort? Dad said the Op-Center had spies everywhere. Why not your father. That might explain why he adopted you." Dean looked unconvinced.  
"If he was a spy for the Op-Center, why did he still get a lifetime sentence in Azkaban? Wouldn't his spy status stop all that? And why didn't Chris and my Mother want to get way from him so fast? If he was spy, that makes him innocent, right?" Dean questioned. Amy looked annoyed.  
"Of course not! The Ministry of Magic doesn't know about the Op-Center. Showing the Ministry proof that Gene was a spy would blow the Op-Center's cover. And the Op-Center didn't want to do that. After all, they would have to work for the Ministry and that would lose any advantage they had gained by keeping secrets. After all, I'm sure the Dark Lord has spies in he Ministry, too. The same goes for telling your mother, Dean. I'm sure he would have wanted to. That is if he's anything like you..." Amy explained. And she hadn't been very sarcastic, either. Dean looked even more upset.  
"Cold-hearted fellows, aren't they?" He said sadly. Kate blinked. She had expected Dean to get mad at the Op-Center. After all, they condemned Mr. Thomas to certain death. Chris just looked blank. Amy nodded. She was rather proud of the Gryffindor. He wasn't mad at the wrong people, a very un-Gryffindor thing. Lauren got a brainwave.  
"Maybe your Dad isn't dead. Maybe he escaped. I mean, could our Dad be that cruel?" Lauren voiced. Dean smiled mirthlessly.  
"You forgot one thing. Nobody's ever escaped from Azkaban. 'Cept Sirius Black." Dean said without emotion. Kate realized what Lauren was implying.  
"Your Dad died pretty fast, right?" Kate asked Dean. Dean flinched, but nodded.  
"Maybe he faked his death. The Op-Center would have helped him out, right?" Kate said. Dean nodded. 'Maybe Kate is right...' Chris starred at the ground.   
"You know what scares me?" Nobody said anything.  
"I don't miss my parents. I never knew them. I wasn't born most of the time they were around, I don't have any memories about them. I mean, I know Gene is probably dead or in hiding right now, and our mother, whose name I don't even know, could be living in America somewhere, and *I don't care*. It doesn't effect me too much. I feel numb, maybe a little sorry. Like it's happening to someone else. Does that make me an unfeeling bugger?" The hopelessness in Chris's voice touched Lauren. She silently debated with herself. Should she say anything about her own parents and hurt Amy? Too late now.  
"I know who you feel. I...I can't feel like Amy." Amy looked confused. "I know my parents were brave and all, but I don't feel very proud." Lauren explained. Chris felt slightly better. At least he wasn't the only one. Amy looked startled.  
"Wha-wait a minutes. Lauren, what did you mean when you said you knew our parents were brave? Do you know something about our parents you never told us? Lauren!" Amy would have whined, if Slytherins did that sort of thing. As it was, she didn't care anyway. Habit, or something like it kept her a 'Slytherin'.   
Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. Amy didn't hate her. Dean watched Lauren out of the corner of his eye. Lauren and Chris had something in common. Maybe... he had let his house's predetermined prejudices influence him. Lauren explained.  
"The Coons, my parents, worked against Voldemort. I think our birth father and Dad knew each other pretty well, so I'm going to assume they worked for the Op-Center, Search and Rescue. Together they were sent out to search for survivors after a Death Eater strike. Both were quite used to the grisly after-effects of Death Eaters and well-trained in medical magic, so I'm told. One day, they when out for a search and rescue and never came back. Their bodies were never identified. They're in a mass grave somewhere outside London. Probably under a farm. the only reason Dad knew was because they had come to tell him where they were going before they left. that's what our dad said. It's a flimsy excuse, so I guess it is a cover-up for the Op-Center. The Center sent the Matt and Joy Coon out, so the Center knows what they never came back from. The official title is missing in action, but during Voldemort's reign, missing in action makes them dead beyond a shadow of a doubt." Kate and everyone else looked downwards. Amy looked downright betrayed.  
"Sis.. why didn't...?" She left her question hanging. Lauren looked pretty upset herself.  
"Amy.. you were so upset. After you left, Dad told me the rest about them. I didn't want to hurt you anymore." Lauren explained. Amy said nothing. It hurt now too. Chris remembered why this whole conversation had started (wow. I don't)  
"So now we know Kate's parents probably didn't die painful deaths (Amy winced) or Death Eaters, or even Death Eaters spies (Dean winced). Amy, Lauren and Dean still got told about their parents. What could be worse?" Chris wondered aloud. Lauren glared at Chris. Chris must be a little preoccupied, because that had been awfully blunt. Chris honestly couldn't think of anything. Kate thought there were more important things to be worrying about right now. Like what they were going to do with all this information, truth, rumor or assumption.  
"What if they just don't know?" Kate asked. "They *found* me. Chances are they really don't have anything to tell me, so they let me think I'm their child. It's easier for them and for me than saying they found me on the street-side or something." Chris nodded to that.   
At least he knew what had happened to his parents, what they had done. He knew they were real, had had friends. Perhaps someday he could even find his parents. He knew something about them.  
  
Kate looked at her siblings. Nobody wanted to leave. Essentially, they hadn't done anything. But the instant they left the play room, the full impact of what they had been talking about would be heavy on their shoulders. The play room was where all of them had come when they had problems. Things just seemed so much less real when the wall-paper danced across the walls. Problems where easier to deal with. But every time the door opened, the real world would sink back in and life would go on. The instant they left the play room, everything would be *real*. There was no getting around it, the truths they had shared with each other, the other sides they had discovered.  
Amy and Lauren's kindness, dean's blind anger. To Kate it seemed the roles had been reversed. Slytherins were stereotyped to be cruel, and the twins had been loyal to family, and they had helped hold everyone together. But Gryffindors were supposed to be the loyal house, supposed to be courageous, and Dean had kicked Kate when she had been down. A patented Slytherin move. Dean looked embarrassed at the monster he had let lose, but the cold truth of it was the monster had been let lose. Amy and Lauren looked embarrassed too, but not ashamed. Just reserved. Kate guessed they weren't too sure what had happened to them. Kate wondered what she would be like when push came to shove. And if her house really had anything to do with it. 'Prolly not'  
More important than her mussing was the state of her family. No matter how much it hurt, they needed to make some decicions about the information they had learned before they left and tried to forget. They may never be this 'close' for a long time. But nobody could do that right now. Everyone was still coming to terms with what they had learned. Dean, Chris, Amy, Lauren and herself needed some time to absorb and except. 'So buy time to/and keep everybody here. Buy time. Right.'  
"Chris?" Chris looked at her. "Remember that Charm of Origin? You said it was unreliable. Why is that?" Kate asked. The question had actually been bugging her. Chris brightened and opened his textbook.  
"It says right here in this teacher's edition you have to understand about the mechanics of a spell to see it. To understand about how a magical object, wood and length effect a wand's spell casting abilities. It doesn't go into depth here, but in the Appendix (Chris flipped to the back) that the same thing goes for wandless magic. You have to understand a how emotions effect person's magic to see emotions felt during the casting of wandless magic. Only extremely powerful or knowledgeable wizards of witches, for example Merlin, could see what spells were actually cast using wandless magic. That's part of the unreliability. It's unreliable because you have to surpass the magical abilities of the caster to see the spell. It's also unreliable because you can't always see the full magical picture. Mister Ollivander could see wad characteristics, but not nessisarilly the spells the wand cast. That's why it's hardly ever used by the Ministry. The Animagi spell is different. To see it, even though it's wandless, you don't need to understand wandless magic, just emotions and animals because-" Amy covered Chris's mouth with her hand. Kate silently offered her thanks. Chris had a tendency to explain something too well. So well you never wanted to hear about it again. Amy didn't notice Kate's look of gratitude, though. She was starring over Chris's chair (lightweight, serviceable, but easy on the backside for people prone to settling down with a 3,000 page book, a common activity of Ravenclaws) at the door.  
"What is it?" Dean asked.  
"Shh!" Was the only answer he got from Lauren.  
"What?" Kate asked.  
"Sh-h!" Amy told her, glaring at the door. Lauren's eyes dared anyone to speak. Kate was about to ask 'What?' again. Then she heard it. There was a scuffling sound on the other side of the door.  
TBC  
  
A/n- Phew! That was...long. And really hard to write ~glares at muses. Muses stick their tongues out at Katie and go back to eating~ Ah well, there it is, everybody! Hey, I've got an idea, I know it sounds crazy, but tell me what you think. Write a review. I'll love you forever! Really, tell me everything. I want to know what you thought about everybody. Notice- I'm looking for a beta-reader (can't you tell) and I really appreciate the help. I don't want to let anyone down. In case you didn't know, room spells are complete bogus from me to you. *I* want a room spell. I know nobody's gone back to Hogwarts after Cedric Diggory's death, so call it my incredible author skills at work (I can look into the future! ~one Muse mutters to self "Course she can. It's her story" Said muses hair turns red. Muse runs about screaming~) About the muggleborn parent's watch not working in the hypothetical situation in the beginning of the chapter, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about muggle stuff not working when they're around too much magic, it's not just something to make the parents mad. * 


	4. And So the Plot Thickens

Chapter 3  
  
And So The Plot Thickens  
  
Disclaimer- For those of you who think I can steal HP and co, keep dreaming. I still own nothing from the original Harry Potter books. Any characters not belonging to J. K. Rowling are mine, not matter how much the deny it. Any plot you find is mine too. No, not pot.*Looks innocent* I have lots of plot! It's even in the title! 'Right'  
  
Dedication-I dedicate this chapter to my dear friend Joe (that's really his name!) and my wonderful readers (crickets chirp in background). Wherever you are. Anywho, Joe is a just about the only person who will listen to me rant on and on about anime (I do that a lot) and listen to the music I put in front of him. Here's to Joe, a normal (err...scratch that, almost normal) Freshmen who is NOT gay. I've had a few arguments with him about that, so I want to make it perfectly clear. Joe is straight, he has a girlfriend (she's nice). I just like to make him mad. And on with the show!  
  
Saphire-Really? You like it? You LOVE it? Oh my... be still my heart. You are my new best friend!  
  
Chris closed the door with a frantic look clear on his dark face.  
"What should we do?" He mouthed. Kate shrugged and Amy seized the opportunity.  
"Everyone do something!" She whispered. Chris snatched and opened to a random page. Lauren glared at him and made 'move' gestures. Chris pulled back into a corner. Amy started towards the door and Lauren settled into a glare.   
Kate blinked and stared at Lauren. She hadn't realized how much nicer Lauren seemed without a frown or glare. Dean looked at Kate from his place across from her, barely three feet away. Apparently they were both completely clueless.  
'Look natural... like you in the common room at school.' Dean was reminded of Ron, whose fierce loyalty was only matched by his skill at wizard's chess. But chess left Dean with a headache, so 'Checkers!' Dean pointed between himself and Kate and a small checkerboard appeared, sans checkers. Kate raised her eyebrow and Dean blushed before adding the pieces unevenly. Kate's eyebrows reached her hairline.  
'What is that?' She wondered. Privately she was glad she had no idea what was in front of her. At least it wasn't chess. She really couldn't play chess. Kate shot Dean a grateful look before turning again to the board. While Kate frowned in thought, Amy opened the door.  
It was a large black dog.  
"Snuffles!" Kate shouted and jumped out of her chair, knocking checkers and board everywhere, but mostly in Dean's face. Amy and Lauren snickered when Dean jumped out of his chair, sputtering. Kate paid them all no heed as she reached her dog. On her knees, she tried to look her dog in his hazel eyes. Hazel? Ah well...  
"Where have you been, you little tramp?" Kate's conceding tone reminded Snuffles of Dumbledore. He looked insulted and Amy laughed. Snuffles started to growl, which ended abruptly when Kate drew him into a hug. Snuffles was too startled t do more than shift his weight (very difficult on four feet) until Kate ended the rather one-sided hug and stood up again.  
Patting him on the head, the girl explained;  
"I've been worried about you." Then she turned to Amy.  
"Can he stay? Snuffles'll listen for our parents and everything!" Kate begged the twin. Snuffles himself looked unconvinced and Amy rolled her eyes.  
"Oh who cares? It's a mutt you found looking through the trash! What's it going to do? Spy on us?" Amy complained. Aforementioned dog looked insulted, but weather it was the reference to his less-than-savory trash-picking experiences or his dismissal as someone important remains unknown. Lauren snorted.  
"I don't care." Lauren explained. Kate obviously wanted everyone's opinion.  
Interestingly enough, she really did. Kate wanted everyone to except Snuffles into the playroom. After all, they were a family. She turned to Chris and Dean. Chris nodded from above hid upside-down book and Dean shrugged. He was preoccupied with retrieving the checkers from the far corners of the playroom.   
"Cool. Okay Snuffles, stay right here and listen for anybody coming up the steps." Snuffles remained standing. His expression was clear.  
'What's in it for me?' Kate smiled. The dog couldn't resist a good bribe.  
"You bark when Mom or Dad are about to come in and they," Kate pointed towards the twins, currently reunited and pushing all the chairs back into the center of the room. "Will steal a real chicken for you." Snuffles' furry behind connected with the ground in record time. Kate smiled again.  
"Good." she said. With a little spring behind her step, Kate returned to the 'family circle' and sat down between Lauren and Amy. To keep them from killing Dean, of course. Not that she was glad to have the girl's support, or she was worried about Dean. The same Dean that had finally remembered *where* he was and wished away the checkers that had caused so much trouble. What a silly thought. To prove just how silly she was being (Dean was fine!), Kate asked her brother,  
"What where those things?" Dean blushed. Hindsight would point out that probably wasn't any way to figure out if someone was crazy or not, but anybody can be a backseat driver.  
"They're called checkers. It's a muggle game." He explained, fascinated by the ground.  
"Really? Hopefully I'll learn about them next year. I'm trying to get into a muggle studies class." Kate responded, honestly interested in anything Dean might have to say. No matter where Kate went after her Hogwarts education, basic muggle know-how would come in handy. Chris looked absolutely shell-shocked. He obviously though she was insane to apply for a new subject the year of the N.E.W.T.S. Kate just smiled at him. Chris opened his mouth to speak, but Dean, who couldn't see his younger brother, cut him off.  
"I know all of us have had a rough morning...ah...afternoon...but I think we need to formulate a course of action." Dean said haltingly. The dark boy looked torn between relief the twins didn't cut him off with a snide remark and nervous about everyone's reaction.  
"Like what?" Chris asked. Kate sighed a sigh of relief. Chris had conveniently forgotten all about his lengthy discussion about the Charm of Origin, and all danger of him remembering was past. Amy rolled her eyes Dean and the boy shrugged.   
"I was hoping you could tell me." He explained. Lauren snorted.  
"A course of action? How very Gryffindor." Amy spat. Chris glared at her.  
"What happened to family, Amy?" He questioned somberly. No trace of malice clouded his perfectly flat voice, but his eyes were another story altogether.  
Amy blinked. Just about then the full implication of Chris's words hit her. She had been the one who had stressed 'family' and here she was hurting her siblings. In a gesture of supreme embarrassment totally unlike her, Amy bent her head and covered her eyes with her hands. While Lauren patted her sister's back, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaw alike stared in confusion. What was going on here, anyway?  
Amy was building herself up to something. Taking a deep, reassuring breath, Amy removed her hand. Looking Dean in his outraged eyes, Amy spoke.  
"Sorry Dean. You didn't deserve that." She said solemnly. After taking another breath, the twin continued in relative silence.  
"what I meant to say is your idea isn't really necessary. We don't have to do anything. Let's face it, what can we do? Go after Sirius Black? Tell the Ministry? Tell our parents? No." She shook her head. Lauren continued.  
"In order, if fully trained hit wizards couldn't get Black, our skills don't stand a chance. If, and I stress if, the Ministry even believes us, we've blown the Op-Center's cover and gotten Dad in big trouble. And our parents would kill us for any and all of the above. Amy's right, what is this, a story? Action to further the plot? Dean! We have so much to teach you!" Lauren finished with a smile, indicating the last part wasn't serious. Her smile made everyone feel more relaxed, even with the importance of what she was saying. Amy nodded and Dean looked downwards, but his face eventually returned, smile present. He could take a joke. Kate laughed.  
"You do realize doing nothing would work fine in a story? I mean, if this is a story, Voldemort and all his Death Eaters are probably huddled around a magical recording spell right now?" Kate explained. Amy sighed, defeated from every quarter.  
"I must be losing my touch. Outsmarted by Kate?" Amy said in mock astonishment. Lauren rolled her eyes. And after that they talked about normal things.  
Dean thoroughly explained Muggle checkers in an attempt to avoid the inevitable. All his efforts were fore naught when Chris left to bring in some large books. He hoped to go into more detail about he Charm of Origins, only to find the playroom vacant.  
He rushed downstairs to the kitchen (the Bell parents had left for parts unknown) to find Amy teasing Kate about her Quidditch skills and Dean trying to teach Lauren about some Muggle cooking machine. In the end Lauren shrugged and summoned lunch (the Bell family didn't own a house elf, and the Fries, Fey's family, although old and established, flat out refused to use them). Chris sighed, but nonetheless put his books aside. After opening the door so Snuffles could get out, the Ravenclaw rushed to stuff his face with scrambled eggs and toast. He obviously wasn't the only person feeling the lack of breakfast. He supposed he could save the Charm of Origin for later...  
  
After plopping down into his less than comfortable chair (anything was better than standing), he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Why did he work for the Ministry of Magic?  
If Alastor Moody hadn't believed having all the facts was a large part of being well prepared, the Aurors wouldn't even know about You-Know-Who's return. Thank Merlin for Moody, the old paranoid. Why was he working for the Ministry again?  
"Da-aad!" Came a voice from down the hall. 'Oh yeah. That's why' For his daughters, Sara and Lynde. The former, a sturdy brunette Auror in training, bounced into Mundungus's Fletcher's study. Her younger sister followed at a more sedate pace.  
"Guess what I found?" Sara asked. Mundungus tried not to groan. Now he understood his wife's anger.  
"I don't know. What, Sara?" Sara made a face.  
"Fletch. Call me Fletch dad." Sara complained. Her father sighed.  
"What Fletch?" He asked.  
Lynde glared at the ground. Why did Sara always get what she wanted.  
"That listening spell you placed on the Bell house came in handy. I was listening-" Lynde cut her sister off.  
"I was listening." She said softly. Sara pushed off her comment like a particularity offensive rat.  
"Lynde was helping and I heard the kids talking!" Mundungus flinched. He was still sore about his daughter being assigned to listen to Liam's family. He forced a smile for Fletch's sake. She was doing what she had been told to.  
"Go on." He urged. Lynde sighed and quietly left the room. Why didn't anyone ever listen to her?  
"They were talking about Sirius Black and You-Know-Who!" She finished dramatically.  
"What?" Mundungus leaned back into his chair, stunned. He knew Liam had been friends with Black, but could he really be associating with the other Death Eaters? Sara rolled her eyes.  
"You heard me. Do you want me to take what I heard to AHQ?" Sara asked, impatient. Her father simply nodded.   
'Liam?'  
several days later  
"Again. Why should I believe you?" Remus Lupin gripped his teacup a little tighter and gritted his teeth. 'Remember. Arabella's difficult to win over. Once she's on your side she's untouchable.' Remus reminded himself. Unfortunately for Remus, difficult was fast approaching impossible.  
"Arabella. Be sensible. Voldemort *has* returned." Arabella shook her head, sending strands of gray hair every which way.  
"I've seen no such thing." She countered.  
"You must have noticed the increased Death Eater activity." Remus said in desperation. Why did Arabella always ignore the truth?  
"There have always been anti-muggle enthusiasts willing to use the title Death Eater to spread fear. I expected a more reasonable explanation from you of all people, Remus. I was wrong in thinking you had a level head on your shoulders."  
"What about the Dark Mark at the Quidditch Championship?" Remus grasped for something, anything to make the old witch listen to reason. Arabella raised her eyebrow.  
"The Dark Mark? I thought that was just Rita Skeeter being a media official. I didn't see anything in Rhonda Rhode's column." Arabella looked slightly shocked. Remus smiled. If she was allowing her emotions to show, she must really be shocked. The werewolf took advantage of Arabella's opening without remorse. The man sighed.  
"Rhonda got married and lives in muggle Canada now." He explained. So the reporter had only married a week or two ago and this story had no relevance in the Dark Mark sighting last summer, but *he* wasn't about to tell the old coot that now. Arabella shuddered.   
"That's an awful way for a woman to go." She shook her head and continued before her male comrade could squawk in indignation, I mean voice his opinion.  
"Really Remus. I wasn't born yesterday. If that's the best you can do..." Arabella trailed off, sipping her tea. Remus boiled.  
"What can I do to convince you? Take you to Azkaban, show you the Dementor's excitment? Or should I sent you to Harry Potter and you can ask him about the nightmares he has about Voldemort? Do I have to show you Lucius Malfoy's forearm? Would you like to see the Tri-Wizard Cup gone Portkey and see where it takes you? What about all the fresh snakeskin in old Death Eater hideouts?" Remus sat back in his chair and deliberately set down his teacup, immensely proud his hand hardly shook at all. Arabella was smiling. Her smile slowly broadened until she was all-out laughing. Remus wondered how and when she went insane. Why hadn't anyone noticed?  
Arabella's laugh wasn't the nicest laugh you'll ever hear. It sounded unused and much too hard. 'What have the years done to you, old woman?'  
Brushing tears of mirth from her eyes, the head of Op-Center spies placed her teacup down as well.  
"It's good to see you so well informed. Is that all you know?" She questioned, sounding honestly curious, but still faintly amused. Remus stared at the old witch in shock an awe.  
"You were pumping me for information?" Remus voice was small and stunned sounding even to himself.  
'I feel so used.'  
Remus was remained of several hundred identical situations, when they had worked together in the Op-Center. It had become a game for the two of them. Who would lose their cool and start spouting secrets first. It was a game Remus always lost. He was a good loser for a long time, and even memorized Arabella's 'game plans'. How could he forget?  
"Of course. I knew the Dark Lord was back, but I had to find out how much you knew. It was all true, of course?" The business tone responded. Before Remus could comment, Arabella nodded to herself.  
"Surely. You try never to tell a lie, even in the heat of your anger. You're too humane Remus." The werewolf felt an overpowering need to hide in a corner. She was right and even his wolf instincts knew when they were beat.  
"You could have just asked." He sounded only faintly insulted.  
"Yes, but would you have told me everything if I had just asked?" She questioned, all business. Remus conceded defeat. He hadn't had a real argument to begin with, around Arabella.   
"Can I help it that everyone made an effort to watch there tongue around you?" He sounded amused, remembering Sirius's encounters with the informant.  
"You call yourself a diplomat?" Arabella's tone was conceding. She was telling him off for losing his temper so easily. Remus resisted the urge to smile and simply shrugged. He remembered this trick.  
"Diluted truth serum in the tea?" He asked back. Arabella shrugged back. Remus made a note never to except food or drink from Arabella again.  
"Why did you come, Remus Lupin?" Now that Arabella had settled down with all the facts, she got right to the heart of the matter. She was mad at him for remembering and knew the game would get harder next time.  
"It's about the Op-Center. Albus is gathering us against Voldemort again. We might be it, with Fudge refusing to accept the Dark Lord's return." Arabella nodded.  
"Amanda's dead. Why do you use her name?" Arabella questioned. Remus winced. He didn't know how he'd forgotten how blunt Arabella was.  
"Respect for the dead. Will you come?" Remus pushed. It was getting late and Merlin only knew what would happen to the werewolf if he stayed for dinner. Arabella looked down her nose at Remus. He wondered not for the first time how she could look down her nose at him when he towered over her.  
"You're all too old. Get young blood." She argued.   
"You were never young." Remus reminded her and winced. How would she respond to being called old? His own mother had been furious when Sirius had called her a grandmother. Arabella shrugged.   
Remus heaved a (soft) sigh of relief. Arabella wasn't your average woman. She wouldn't be upset about being old.  
"I grow more intelligent with age. You seem to be getting more foolish." Remus sighed again. Perhaps she wasn't that different from other women at all.  
"We all have to do what we can. I was hoping you could recruit some fresh blood for us." The wizard admitted. If they could face down Arabella they could handle Death Eaters. Arabella watched his face closely and Remus instinctively stopped that train of thought. It was uncanny how much like his mother the witch looked right now.  
"Oh Merlin. I swear, you will put me in an early grave." She said. Remus looked overjoyed and jumped up to hug the witch, but her expression stopped him faster than Pertificis Totalis. He sat back down in his seat with a thump.  
'This is going to be a long summer.'  
  
Normally Madame Rosemera was a cheerful person to the point it scared some of the less social frequents (aka Professor Snape, among others), but today was an exception in the extreme. The only thing missing was a darkened storm cloud hanging over her head as Madame Rosemera of Three Broomsticks whipped around tables. And it all seemed to originate from a scruffy black dog sitting outside. The barmaid absolutely refused to travel all the way to the front of the bar, and glared in his general direction at regular intervals. Needless to say, the tables in the dog's vicinity were vacant beyond a shadow of doubt.  
Why?  
Madame Rosemera hated dogs.  
It went back to her fifth year at Hogwarts. She had been visiting a male friend (ahem) late one night and a giant black dog, not so different from the one at the shop front had jumped out of nowhere and chased her all the way back to the school. She had been so scared she started hallucinating. How else could she explain the stag rolling on the ground, shaking? She had only caught a glimpse in the dark, but the figure of a stag had been unmistakable. Such a magnificent creature with a proud air, looking like it was laughing so hard it was on the point of tears.  
It had been a very disturbing night, and the following morning (Saturday) her boyfriend had dumped her.  
Rosemera glared at the dog again. 'Why did the Ministry create all those animal protection laws?' She wondered hopelessly. So great was her fury she failed to notice all her customers shuffling towards the door till they had left. The barmaid sighed. 'I need a drink.'  
  
Meanwhile, outside, the guilty dog was barking raggedly, as close as he could come to laugher. He'd forgotten how much fun infuriating people *was*.   
His hyper-awareness made it possible for Sirius to know exactly when everyone had left the bar or hid in the fireplace without turning around. He got the impression he was receiving more than his fair share of dirty looks. He turned around just in time to see Rosemera headed to the back of the bar. The dog's 'giggles' intensified.   
'I really need a life.' He thought to himself. A rat scuttled by and Sirius was reminded of life he had. Not a good one, for the time being, not on any level. In a wave of depression the dog decided he'd bugged enough people for one day and turned towards home.  
'Home? Am I that fond of someone else's house?' Sirius pondered, entering the Hogsmeade residential area. There was an obvious shift in the atmosphere. While the commercial Hogsmeade was charged with an energy and welcome that never ceased to draw school children, the homes of Hogsmeade radiated a genuine warmth that only happy wizarding families could. 'Well, it's better than Buckbeak's cave.' Having discovered the Hippogriff identity via his godson, Sirius thought it prudent to keep Buckbeak tied up away from Hagrid's hut (smell) and muggles it was sure to terrorize. Besides, this close to Hogwarts, the escaped magical creature was to risk of being recognized and that could lead some rather awkward questions from the keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts.  
Sirius barked to be let in at the Bell house, still completely lost in thought. But all thought crystallized in his head when Sirius saw who answered the door.  
It was Liam Bell himself.  
Stiffly, Sirius walked inside the doorframe, around his one-time friend. He made his way to Kate's room in a cloud of depression. Passing the Thomas bedroom cheered him slightly.  
The fight between good and evil was still being re-enacted in the boy's room. Judging by the clothes hanging on the door, good was winning again today. Christopher must have given up early this week.  
Looking out the window into the backyard helped get rid of Sirius's depression even more. The Bell children were playing a rousing game of Quidditch.  
That is to say, Kate would viciously pelt around the backyard, throwing the Quaffle around and catching it for about five and a half seconds (2 laps and a few tosses) before pausing. Even in such a short period of time, she could find one of her siblings doing something odd. The she would laugh loudly at her sibling's antics before practicing again. The twins were hurling make-shift bludgers at everything that moved and some stuff that didn't. Dean was dive-bombing his younger brother Chris, who was trying to read and stay comfortable on a broom.  
Sirius was content until he entered Kate's bedroom (he had no desire to dodge bludgers and crazy children on brooms). There was an orderly stack of parchment entitled 'Potions Essay'.  
'I believe a transfer of ownership is required. Doing homework already.' Sirius shook his doggy head as parchment swirled down the toilet.  
'Some children.'  
  
Everything was normal on Privet Drive. The grass was green, the birds were chirping and not a single ill-mannered dog was barking. The oppressive heat had hardly dimmed at all for the coming of night. In fact, it was most likely to remain like this until morning. It was still sweltering outside, the heavy heat that keeps everyone inside in their air-conditioned parlors and children in the basement (heat makes adults ornery).  
Unsurprisingly, heat was no buffer for one young man, around the age of 13 or 14. If ever a thin spot in the blanket of normality encompassing Privet Drive could be found, Harry Potter of Number 4 was it.  
Being the only human outside for a good distance he was the only person to see the moving van pull up at number 7 down the street. Following behind was a brand new car ( on the wrong side of the road).Glancing quietly inside number 4. Harry was relieved to see no eyes staring back. He had had several nasty experiences with eyes. Dobby the house elf, Mrs. Norris the evil cat from hell, Voldemort...  
(Oh. Wait. You knew Harry Potter was a wizard, right? Good.)  
Turning back to the new-comer, Harry noticed the car had pulled up and the diver was exiting. A short, brown-haired and tanned woman, she had a bouncy air about her. 'Wonder who she is?' The teenager glanced back a the window before walking towards the new person.  
As he neared the house, he saw the woman was directing movers to leave everything in the front hall. Up close she was even more bouncy, dressed in tight jeans and a floral print shirt. When she noticed him she blinked before holding out her hand.  
"Taylor Rowe-Love. I'm moving in here." She said.  
"Hi." Harry replied. He wasn't really sure what to say to the forward woman. Was she a witch? Should he mention his name?  
Was she a muggle, like his aunt and uncle? Should he even bother?  
Was she working for Voldemort? Should he try to find out? Harry immediately brushed that idea aside. 'Dumbledore says I'm safe here.' He sternly reminded himself. Taylor frowned.  
"Talkative, aren't you? Is it because I'm American?" She asked. Harry's brows furrowed.  
"I knew there was something different about you." Harry blinked before realizing how impolite what he had said was. He gulped. 'Great way to talk to a person, Potter!' he thought to himself. Surprisingly, Taylor wasn't mortally wounded. In fact, she threw her head back and laughed. Harry blinked. Were all Americans crazy?  
When she had finished laughing, Taylor wiped a tear from her eye.   
"I'm terribly sorry. It's just...never mind." Taylor appeared to be trying to explain something, but she was just making Harry more confused.  
"What?" He asked. Taylor smiled.  
"Nothing." And that was the end of that.  
"What has you so serious?" Taylor asked. Harry shrugged.  
"I'd rather not talk about it." He said. Taylor shook her head. For once she listened to the teachings of her dear mother and didn't say anything more.   
"Well young man, it was nice to meet you. I knew young people are always looking for money, so would you want to move some furniture for me?  
I'll pay you of course. I need to have everything situated before work starts. This was a sudden move, so I didn't have time to make any arrangements."  
Harry nodded. It sounded reasonable enough.  
"Sure. I'll speak to my aunt and uncle about it." Taylor smiled again, and this time Harry smiled back.  
"My name is Harry Potter." He said, breathless. He'd hate to ruin a new friendship with his celebrity status.  
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Potter."  
  
TBC  
  
A/n- Amazing. You are all some awesome for reading this far!!!! I love you. I just ask you to review. Please? For me? Okay, if you don't I'll be alright, but.... Anywho, about Fletch (senior). We're going to say Remus doesn't like him, so he hasn't spoken to him yet about the Op-Center. Yes, I understand the time listings (ex= several days later or ) are inconsistent, try to bear with me. If it doesn't had a time period listed inside the 's a short period of time has passed or it doesn't matter (most of the time it doesn't anyway, but oh well). And yes, the possessed dog and stag were Sirius and James. Snuffles had a crush on the barmaid. I mentioned a 'transfer of ownership.' aka Sirius flushes Kate's homework. It's an allusion to Redemption Of Athalus. It's a good book, the one I took my name from (Dweia).  
I'm sooooooo sorry it took me this long to finish a chapter. I've been really busy with school and swim team and being sick (and catching up) to get this done. I know, I'm awful. Please try to find it in your hearts to forgive me. (dodges rotten vegetables). Really, I'm sorry! I love you all....  
~Dweia'sDouble 


	5. A Sirius Matter

Chapter 4  
  
A Sirius Matter  
  
Disclaimer- Nope, I still don't own HP, Tom Clancy or even anime (having no relation to this story, but I thought I'd mention it). Please don't look at me like that, I can't steal anything (well if/when I did whatever I stole would run away. My luck's just like that). I won't even mention plot. I'm really not making anything off this, and my parents don't really appreciate it, so don't hassle me about the nonsense that follows. Everyone's subject to their emotions, right? Well, my emotions are insane.  
  
Emma Malfoy- (sniffles) you..... you love it too? OMG! I feel so appreciated. I could kiss you! (Emma runs away)  
Sorry! I promise I won't! Come back!  
  
ILuvSiriusBlack- (sniff) thanks very much to you too! Reviews make me feel so special! ^^  
  
person w/no name- I'm really sorry I made u review because I took so long. Thank u every1,I feel so loved.  
  
"'It was I dreary night in November....'  
"Think of the cool rain drenching you. Sounds nice, huh?" Came the dull monotone, similar to a wizarding telemarketer, if wizards had such monsters as well.  
"Shut up Chris" Kate yelled at her brother, starring glumly out the window. It was still sweltering out there. Dean reentered the living room looking relatively refreshed.  
"Stick your head in the fridge again?" Amy questioned. Dean nodded, too warm and too cool to say anything. Lauren laughed scornfully. Or tried to. In the end she just sounded amused and slightly jealous, which she was. Amy shook her head.  
"Give it up. It's too hot to be mean." Lauren nodded her agreement.  
Kate sighed. Hogsmeade had been in the grip of an oppressive heat wave since summer vacation had started, and it was getting late in July. Not that the heat had been this bad when school let out. Or if it had, they had enjoyed the high temperatures much more. The nights where no better than the days and every day mashed into the day before and after with the numbing sameness. Even sitting and relishing in the lack of homework had lost it's glitter.  
Chris pushed out of the mold of sameness that was suffocating them all and spoke.  
"Do you think it's possible for heat alone to drive someone insane?" He sounded genuinely curious, a speck of shade on canvas. But one abnormality inspires others, the stark reds love company. Snuffles growled and Kate said  
"You could. At this rate, we'll all be crazy in an hour." Dean rolled his eyes.  
"I'm going to do my homework."  
Silence reigned, and the colors where lost.  
  
Kate continued starring out the window, trying to clear her mind of all thought. It didn't seem to be working, or it just didn't matter, because she was still bored. Not just any bored, but the bored that comes to the easily obsessed. The kind of bored that seeps into your blood and seems like it will never leave.   
She had already redone her Potions homework and hid it in a safe place so no-one would steal it again. It didn't really bother her that the essay had gone missing. Any distraction was welcome, no matter how tedious. Besides, now it was better than her original, and Kate, like the average Gryffindor, could always use a little help in potions.  
The chaser had asked herself many times but she couldn't figure out who would bother stealing her homework. There was no plausible explanation. Chris wouldn't dream of it, Dean was more than likely trying to avoid thinking about homework altogether, and she didn't think the twins would do something like that. Kate hated to doubt her sisters, but she couldn't think of anyone else who would steal homework, or pull some mean prank like that.  
"Hey Snuffles. You wouldn't steal my homework, would you?" Kate asked, still gazing out the window. A pity, because if she had been facing her furry companion she would have seen him stop dead and look hopefully towards and exit. She did, however, turn slowly. Kate saw her dog wagging his tail and looking innocent. This would have been fine, because after all it was a dog, but Snuffles had never wagged his tail, ever, and his eyes never changed from their bemused expression.  
"Oh Merlin. You did, didn't you? That's just sad." A stab in the dark and highly unlikely to be sure, but Kate reminded herself this wasn't a normal dog like the ones muggle-borns told stories about. Snuffles was a wizarding dog, and subject to different rules. Kate's suspicions were confirmed when Snuffles froze before continuing his 'innocent' act with fervor.  
"Boy I hope you didn't eat it." Kate grumbled, grouchy. The large black dog narrowed his eyes and growled. Kate instantly brightened.  
"So you admit your guilt." Kate said, grinning triumphantly at her pet. The dog walked away. The blonde smiled.  
"You can't win them all." She called after the animigi's receding figure  
Kate blinked and realized she was all alone in the living room, having annoyed away the only other occupant.   
'What should I do now?' She wondered.  
Kate turned to the indoor/outdoor temperature spell and was startled by what she saw. Within the half-hour the temp. would drop to around 27 degrees!   
"Freedom at last!" She shouted and snatched her broom. Snuffles peaked his head around the doorway (it was an open doorway, without a door at all). Kate smiled at him and said;  
"I'm going flying!" Joy about the cool weather nearing clear on her face, Kate simply smiled at her dog, this time without any hint of sarcasm. Having missed the future dramatic weather change, the dog shook his head in disgust. He was still quite sore about having been found out. It had been a great many years since someone had read his expressions so well. Having been around so few humans to hide his pranks from had made his emotions show plainly on his face.   
But things were changing for Sirius. Perhaps it was living in a happy family, where healing emotions washed through the house like water, or maybe he had been out of Azkaban low enough for it's fool shadow to fade from his life, but for whatever the reason, Sirius decided this meant it was time to start retraining. Never would a child in this house be free of his pranks again! Or maybe, it was because Kate said one more thing before walking out the door, well-used broom in hand.  
"Yeah, and I love you too, crazy dog."  
  
The Bell family had a huge backyard.  
Well, technically, the magic woodland known in Hogwarts as the Forbidden Forest wasn't the Bell's property, but it had claimed the hearts of everyone in Hogsmeade, and residents of all ages called it their backyard. The forest wasn't as treacherous as the area around the school (Hogwarts had been built in the thick of the forest for magical reasons as well as for protection) but it was swamped with magical creatures. For this reason wizarding Realtors couldn't touch the forest, whether the barrier was unpleasant childhood memories or ancestral fear left over from the dark ages (it was not uncommon for wizards to disappear without a trace in medieval times). In fact, some of the more outrageous rumors claimed the citizens of Hogsmeade could talk to animals. Although it was true several of the wizarding laws protecting magical creatures had been proposed by permanent Hogsmeade residents in the past, the village claimed it was all a matter of preferring to walk in the woodland than concoct potions in someone's basement. Besides, such rumors were never mentioned in polite company.  
Whatever their ulterior motives, all the citizens of the wizarding Hogsmeade called the outskirts our their backyard. And for all intents and purposes, it was. Some families planted gardens deeper in the forest, adults practiced rusty Quidditch skills in the numerous fields peppering the woodland and a handful of researchers who lived in the village practiced their art only a few miles from their house.  
Unfortunately, there were few children living in Hogsmeade. So the Bell clan turned to the forest. A healthy number of tree houses graced the trees near the Bell house. Tree houses provided excellent cover for over-ambitious children to practice spells. They had to be very careful of the power of there spells, lest the magic attract some of the less pleasant inhabitants of the forest, or so their parents had told them, and the centaurs warmed Chris personally. He had decided to practice spells at a much younger age, before Fey and Liam could warm him.   
Right now Kate was headed toward one of her favorite forts. She had gone to the muggle side of Hogsmeade to find some planks of wood. Wood was not the only thing she found, and the younger Kate had soon learned to wear shoes anywhere muggles might have left trash. After hauling the planks to a safe place (where the twins wouldn't stumble upon them). Kate had built a lean-to against a large tree. Then came the hard part. It had been a tricky bit of magic, but Kate had transfigured the wood to a living tree. It had been a painstaking few weeks until she had finally figured out the secret.  
After several weeks of leaving wood transfigured to the tree to return the next morning to find the tree pushing the plank out. At first she thought it needed more magic. Kate's parents had taught all the Bell children about changing the amount of magic used in a spell, and all the children automatically used the smallest amount of magic in the forest. They could hear werewolves and other creatures howl in the night, and they never stopped being a little afraid of what lived in the forest.  
Kate used more and more magic, but the planks kept getting rejected. The chaser was rapidly depleting her store of wood, and becoming more desperate with each failed attempt. Finally Kate left several pieces of oak pulled off the same tree, desperately hoping they would grow. Low and behold, the next day the tree hadn't rejected the wood. The transfigured pieces had started growing together and the growth was sprouting a green branch.  
That's when it hit the blonde. It wasn't enough for the wood to be real wood, or even the same species of tree, it had to be *alive* Otherwise she might as well have been 'planting' a twig in the mud. Kate wondered if one of the forest creatures had pulled off the branches for her and she wished she could repay them. So when she finished growing her fort (as long as the wood was alive and green everything worked) she left out some bread (her mother sometimes liked to make bread for the fun of it) and the snidgets ate it. The birds liked her mother's bread so much that some of them set up nests in her tree. Fat birds.  
As Kate reached her fort, she viewed her handiwork with growing pride. Minus the noisy snidgets it was quite impressive. A little bumpy and lopsided, but was defiantly a tree-house. The chaser carefully hid her broom before getting too close to her fort. The magical birds would be absolutely unbearable if they saw her Nimbus.  
  
"And on the positive outlook, this Gosh-forsaken heat wave is expected to come to an end with this big storm. Lots of Bum and Bang heading our way. Keep the kiddies inside and away from the tellie, parents, 'cause this is gonna be a big one!" Said an enthusiastic voice.  
"Dean. I don't care about your Muggle Studies homework. I *cannot* *take* this crazy man any longer!" Amy looked amazed at her sister. Lauren's voice had steadily risen from calm and cold to the ferocity of a caged bear. And her sister was supposed to be the quiet one. Dean nodded in relief.  
"Awful isn't it? Professor gave us spelled radios tuned to three radio stations. I'm just glad we only have to listen to each of them once." Dean explained. He quickly leaned over to turn the radio off. Amy spoke up  
"Spelled for what?" She asked. Dean never looked up from the radio, he was staring at it with something akin to fear in his eyes.  
"So we have to return them to school, or they explode and we have to buy new ones." Amy nodded. Dean gave up study in favor of experimentation, but he only succeeded in changing the station.  
"-This storm is bringing long-awaited rain with thunder and lighting. Expected to hit Cullsmeade area in 10 minutes. Strong wind and heavy precipitation. Please remain inside for the duration-" A monotone voice said before being cut off.  
The twins glared at Dean, who had ceased hiding his fear of the muggle device.  
"What? How was I supposed to know it'd be a button with a circle and a line through it. Muggles." Amy sighed.  
"Well, at least he got the thing off." Lauren hurmpfed.  
"And just when he found a forecaster who wasn't living off cheering charms." Amy sighed. Lauren looked thoughtful and was about to speak when their pet started barking frantically at the door. Lauren raised her eyebrow in annoyance and amusement, two emotions that seemed tied together in the twins eyes. As she walked out of the room, Amy pounced Dean, who was muttering to himself about crazy forecasters. Amy's face lit up with a sadistic grin that should have sent Dean running for cover, however currently he was too busy muttering to notice.  
Amy pondered what to say. Destroying Hufflepuff work may by amusing, but in the heart of every Slytherin there was a desire to break Gryffindors. It was encouraged in school and had become one of Amy's more enjoyable hobbies.  
"Hey Dean." Dean looked up from the parchment he had written his summer vacation homework assignments on.  
"Hmm?" Dean considered putting down his parchment and sprinting in another direction. Eventually he decided against it; he would never get the parchment back.  
"You thought that muggle forecaster was really annoying, huh?" Dean smiled, that was an easy question. His 'conversations to avoid' radar had gone off only because Amy was still mad at the forecaster with too much coffee, not because there had been a hint of sadism in her voice that meant she was going to slaughter him and use his entrails in a ceremony for the Dark Lord.  
"He near drove me insane! How can the muggles stand him?" Dean looked relived *someone* agreed with him. Amy looked confused. The other Gryffindors she tortured would have viciously fought against her about how annoying the muggle was. They would claim he was fine, why did she have a problem with him, was it because she was a Slytherin?  
"B-but..You're a Gryffindor! Full of all that 'protect the muggles' nonsense! You aren't supposed to hate muggles!" Amy blinked. Any plan to taunt Dean about his stereotypical beliefs had gone horribly awry. Besides, Amy had said *exactly* what she felt. Now she was waiting for everyone to start laughing. It was Dean, the Gyffindork extraordinare and buddy-buddy of the Golden Boy. But he sounded...normal. Like some of the friendlier Ravenclaws. Amy paused and wondered how she could have missed so much about her brother.  
Dean himself was a little shell-shocked by Amy's outburst. Nevertheless, he felt compelled to answer his sister. She had, perhaps on accident, lost the steel grip on her tongue. She didn't do that a lot, and the only other time he could remember her doing something like this was when Lauren had talked about the twin's parents. If that had never happened Dean would probably just ignored his sister, but he had been thinking along much the same lines at his sister, although less insulting. Maybe Amy would even listen.  
"Gyrffindork?" He said questioningly. He was well aware of what the Slytherins called Gryffindors, either behind their backs or to their faces. So maybe he wasn't going to be really nice about this... Amy blushed.  
"Sorry." She said softly. Dean blinked. Amy must really care. Dean felt his new beliefs were being tested. He'd be nicer to his sister.  
"You're right about what you said earlier, thought. A lot of Gryffindors fit the 'protect the muggles, talk trash about the Slytherins' stuff. But it's not that simple for the rest of us." Amy nodded absently, not really understanding, not really interested now that she knew Dean wasn't going to insult her.  
"Like you?"   
"...Like me." Dean nodded. Amy snorted. This was safe ground for taunting, Dean was boasting.  
"What makes you different?" Her tone was amused, but Amy never quite insulted Dean, and he noticed.  
"You heard me before. Muggles are people, not objects to simply protect. They're not all the same, or that's what I'm learning in Muggles Studies. I joined because I wanted to understand what they are. I'm getting a pen pal next year." Amy contemplated. This was an arguement...so she was allowed to listen closely to what Dean said and find the weak points.  
"So not every muggle is the same. Great. Why does that make any difference?" Dean looked disappointed. Wasn't that enough for her? Amy smiled. It had been nonsense after all.  
Silence reigned, Lauren still absent.  
"Because I like muggles. Not because they're muggles, that doesn't matter to me. Magic is nothing compared to all the things muggles invent-" Amy cut him off.  
"So magic is just a talent not everyone has?" Dean considered.  
"I..I think so. I mean, they're the same as us, just without magic. I've read some of their history books, they have Voldemort's just like us. If I have to, I'll protect muggles the same way I would other wizards. With respect for the things they can do better than me and complementing them." Amy paused to absorb this.  
"So...muggles are the same as us...but different just like magic folk are different." Dean nodded. Amy said wonderingly  
"Muggles are...people." Dean nodded. Amy stiffened and glared icily at her brother.   
"I've had enough of this nonsense." She said and walked out. And even when she glared at Dean, he wasn't effected by the cold in her eyes anymore.  
  
"Well, nothing changed." Kate sighed. She was still really bored. That awful kind of boredom that seeps into your bones and *stays* there.  
Resisting the urge to tap her foot, Kate remembered the reason she had left the house in the first place.  
"Of course! How could I be so silly?" The blonde practically exploded out of her tree house in her strategically positioned broomstick. Needless to say her sudden (and sloppy) actions brought a great many squawks of indignation from her feathered friends. Kate took to the sky, in a mass of complaining birds.  
  
Outside the Bell house, a dog was pacing. He looked at the overcast sky above and growled.  
'Where did she go?' Sirius was absolutely furious. He had known there was a storm brewing (with his abilities as a dog) and still allowed the Bell girl to fly off into the heart of it. She couldn't recognize the smells and feelings associated with storms and would never realize the danger she was in till she was caught in the middle of a potentially dangerous storm without hope of escape. And because she flew so high he could never catch her sent. Without his wand he couldn't even perform a finding spell.  
"I love you too, crazy mutt." She had said. And he couldn't even protect her just like his godson. He could never do anything.  
The dog howled up at the pending storm. What could he do? 'What about....no!' He couldn't do that. They would never listen...unless...maybe it would work...  
And the black dog ran off.  
  
Kate looked around her, the sky a strange green color.  
"This is creepy." She tried to look out further in the sky, but the snidgets continue to follow her through the sky. Well, she had flown into the sky right by her 'fort'. It's had been risky, with the trees all around her, but it had freed Kate of her boredom. Flying was like coming home to a home she could never really stay in. The birds noises grew loader.  
"If the broom scares you, go back to your nest, dumb birds." Kate muttered. She tried to fly even higher, to get above all the fuzzy bodies, but this agrivates the birds more.  
"What's wrong with you?" The girl wonders. Feeling carefree, dispite the eerily green sky, Kate leads the birds on a merry chase, using all her Quidditch moves to evade the small bodies. But they always manage to end up above her, and she doesn't have the heart to push through their self-built barricade.  
Kate flew fratically towards the ground and saw the snidgets were following her. Quickly she pulled out of her dive, scraping the tops of the tree. What she saw parilized her. Ahead was a gigantic thunderhead, heading towards Hogsmeade with her between the two.  
"Oh shit."  
Kate flew towards her village, hoping to reach it before the storm cloud. She already knew she could never make it in time, and she would probably be hit by lightning and fall to her death. The snidget's angry twittering was lost in a roll of thunder that shook Kate in the sky, whether with the sound waves or because the chaser was shivering.  
  
TBC  
  
A/n- (Gulps) Sorry everyone about the cliffhanger. I really didn't expect the chapter to end like this...It just happened. And as for what Sirius is doing...Sadly, he hasn't me a whole lot. All you good fans (waves at her two schoolmates who she forced to read this story) out there I'll try to be faster, but until school ends (looks longingly towards horizon) this updating speed is probably going to be the norm.  
Yes, I know the corniness of the title is just plain pathetic, but the evil little plot bunny attached itself to my brain and I couldn't think up another name. By the way, the first line (quoted by Chris) was from page one of Frankenstein. It caught my eye in computers class. For all of those who don't use the metric system, 27C is about 80F. I don't like anywhere near England, so I'm not sure if this is too warn of cool. Whatever the normal temp. in England, it's a major temperature drop from the heat wave. And about the thermometer, it is magical after all, and no wizard listens to radio forecasts (I had to make them listen to wizarding music) the thermometer spell is a miniature forecast. Wow, my notes just keeping getting longer. I shudder to think about the next chapter's note. I love all of you for reading this and actually paying attention, see you soon. Feel free to talk to me on AIM, I'm Sakanosan06 (it's on my profile). Any questions or comments would be appreciated.  
~Dweia'sDouble 


	6. Carpe Deim

Chapter 5  
  
Carpe Deim (Seize the Moment)  
  
Disclaimer- Disclaimed in chapter 1+. See above. I own only my characters (all of the Bell family, minus Kate) everything else belongs to J.K.Rowling. Op-Center belongs to Tom Clancy. Heero Yuy from Gundam Wing belongs to Bandi (lucky buggers). No, Heero doesn't make an appearance...unless. Well, I might actually work that in later, but tonight.   
Here's the next chapter, length varies.  
  
  
Dean was sitting in the living room, pondering the mystery that is girls, homework assignment long forgotten, when someone knocked on the door. Well, it was more of a banging, but Dean got the idea. Especially when the 'knocking' continued until he opened the door. The sky had filled with clouds, but Dean could make out a figure in rags. It suddenly dawned on Dean that he should have tried to find out who was at the door before he opened it. The figure looked up, and Dean took a step back. Crazy thoughts rushed thought the Gryffindor's brain. Could this stranger be calling The Dark Lord or something worse?  
'It has to be some sort of spell he's using...' He thought. The man's black eyes were large and... seemingly devoid of emotion in any shape or form.  
"D-dad! Mum! Come quick!" Dean paused, amazed the stranger hadn't stopped him. The dark man had only tilted his head, expression still blank. Then he blinked and opened his mouth. No sounds came, and Dean stared in wonder and no small amount of fear. The man cleared his throat and tried again.  
"Siblings." His voice croaked. Dean's fear was draw back by shear curiosity. How did this stranger know his parents weren't home? Someone bad would have run, but this man stayed, and knew he had brothers or sisters. Dean shook his head. No matter who this mystery person was, he would never betray his family and possibly call them into danger. The man coughed again before shouting in an extremely hoarse voice, so bad Dean could barely understand what he said.  
"Amy! Lauren! Chris! Kate needs your help, now!" Dean blinked and stepped back again. '*Who* is this guy?' He wondered. Amy materialized next to his right shoulder, Lauren on his left, Chris was heard clomping down the stairs. Amy's hand snapped out over his right shoulder, and Dean could feel how tense her muscles were. The man grinned wolfishly and handed her his left hand, forearm up. Amy caressed his forearm and a black light flashed, but nothing appeared. Dean stood immobile, but he could feel Amy's arm relax. Lauren raised her wand towards the man, the warm wood just touching his ear.  
"What do you want?" She sounded cold and angry, what Dean remembered to be a dangerous combination with either of the twins because they seemed to share emotions. The man bowed his head and lightening flashed. As it started to rain, he flashed the children a daredevil grin and said.  
"I'll show you."  
  
Sirius scolded himself. What was he doing, with all his dramatic poses and smirks? Was he trying to scare the children away, when he needed their help? There was little time left to save Kate if she was in the air. She would provide a perfect lightening rod. A rouge part of his mind insisted 'Just like old times, When James was -' Sirius stopped that train of thought immediately, this was not the time or place to indulge in a little self-pity. Again he reminded himself, 'Someone's life is at stake.' And lifted his nose to the sky.  
  
The man herded everyone outside to the village's main boulevard and appeared to smell the air. He must have smelt something he didn't like, because he growled and covered his face with his hands, looking totally destroyed. Then he pointed to the sky.  
"That's your sister." He whispered, voice still a croak. Silence followed, then a huge crash of thunder rocked everyone's eardrums.  
"No time. Use summon charm." The man in rags said. Chris sputtered.  
"None of us has near the power needed to get Kate down here from that far away with any speed and then-" the man raised his hand for silence.  
"Together." Chris's eyes near popped out of his head. Dean shook his brother.  
"Is that even possible?" He asked urgently and the twins watched Chris out of the corner of their eyes, waiting for his answer. Combined charms and spell were not and never would be in the school curriculum. Chris noticed all this and his lips thinned.  
"Bring your wands close together, hold hands, and get as close as you can." The children again looked to Chris after the man spoke. Chris nodded. The Bell children were soon one wet, grumpy mass, as it had started raining. The man placed his hands on the twins' backs. They eyed him.  
"No wand. On three."  
"One."  
"Two."  
"Three"  
"Accio Kate!" Five voices called out.  
  
It was a strange feeling, when the magic Dean knew instinctively to be *his* combined with magics a distant part of him reasoned must belong to his siblings. Time slowed down, and while the spell was still inside him, still inside all of them, waiting to be released via the wand he held clustered with three others, Dean's magic pushed to be alone. They all wanted to do the same thing, but he had been *first*, and he wanted to stay that way, in control. He could practically see sparks on the borderlines of different magics. A strong voice spoke from the back of his mind and told him the other magics didn't really belong to his siblings, but fearsome enemies, all jealous of his self-proclaimed control over the spell. And suddenly Dean could feel the spell slipping out of his control, and all that newfound confidence that had said he was in control of all this magical power faded. And Dean knew with a horrifying certainty he had blotched the spell beyond repair. Then another foreign magic flowed into the spell, almost black. No, it is dark hazel an it spreads thought everyone's magic, covering the cracks Dean's anger had created everywhere like a cloak. Dean felt an overwhelming sorrow and knew his siblings felt the same way. Just as the last magical crack is sealed and the children's different magic has completely melded and Dean realized the spell might not be destroyed, Dean heard a sound like a timer going off, and the spell left thought his wand in a rush. Everyone watched with baited breath to see what would happen. Time returned to normal and the spell shot off towards the little silhouette labeled Kate.  
A shadow was growing larger, and it started to take on Kate's form.  
"Duck."Said the man in rags, his voice no longer so hoarse and strangely distant. Everyone except himself did, and he caught the shadow that had solidified into Kate. He started towards the house and said in a conversational tone  
"You were lucky. When my friends and me tried to do Lumos, we ended up in the Hospital Wing for a month." Kate, stunned, looked from the sky to the man to the sky again and said,  
"Oh for Merlin's sake, why didn't you save the broom?" The man laughed. It was a course, under-used laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.  
"Your family barely had enough magical power to summon you, Mz. Bell. Are you quite well?" Kate shrugged just as lightening stuck again and the faint but distinct sound of wood splintering was heard. Kate whimpered and fell to the ground when the tall man let her go.  
"My broom..." she whispered. The man stood still, but his expression sounded he seemed to understood she was in pain. Dean was too caught up in his own inability to control his baser instincts again to be of any use. Amy and Lauren were quite used to seeing people in pain and knew Kate would be better later. Chris however, was mad.  
"You don't get it, do you? That was very nearly you splintered to a million pieces, because you wouldn't have been fast enough to get safely to ground even at top speed. The only reason you're down here and not up there is because this mystery wizard showed up, told us you were in trouble, showed us where you were, told us to save you, took us through the steps, kept us from screwing up a combined spell effort that could easily have seriously injured or killed all of us, then disguised the spell to look like lightening so none of us would be expelled from school, and all without a wand!" Chris paused to breathe, but decided he should just breathe.  
"And he's not a Death Eater." Amy added loudly.  
Kate stared at her siblings and the strange man who cared so much about her while thunder and lightening played in the sky. The storm didn't have the urgency from moments before and the natural display had a relaxed mood. Kate brushed rain that looked suspiciously like tears out of her eyes, stood up shakily and turned in a slow circle, thoughtful. After scrubbing even more 'rain' out of her eyes, she smiled slightly and pointed to her house.  
"Let's get inside, before we all smell like wet dogs." Kate really grinned this time and turned to the man, whose nose had started to twitch, perhaps because he caught a sutle hint in her tone and was uncounciously sniffing.  
"Not that I'm implying anything..." She said in a false honey-coated voice.  
The man coughed loudly, obviously trying not to laugh at something.  
"Ahem. Actually I have to go. Now." He said and Kate nodded.  
"Ahh... Thanks." She said, awkwardly twisting her shirt in her hands. What do you say, what did you do from someone who just saved your life? The soggy girl held out her hand to shake. The man winced and held his hands out. It was covered with fresh burns. The most severe burns where on his palms, radiating outwards. Kate took the liberty of looking down he ratty sleeve to see burns disappear into a fold in the fabric.  
"Did...how did...?" Kate muttered, at a loss. The man smirked.  
"I had to use my magic to help summon you, and without a wand, the magic can't leave properly, so it burns my hands. It can't be healed with magic, either." Kate gulped.  
"Oh. Well then, just thanks." She said, winked and walked towards the Bell house, whose front door was still open and whose light made a beacon to follow. The other children turned after Kate, sneaking glances into the dark. Chris squeaked when lightening illuminated an empty street.  
  
It was still raining hard, so the family walked quickly home. Once inside with the door shut and locked magically (any half-bit wizard knew how to use Alohamora). Chris thought to cast a drying spell on himself. The effect wasn't quite what he expected, he clothes remained partly damp. It was much the same for the twins, and Dean couldn't even summon a spark of magic. Kate was prodded, and she absent-mindedly cast a drying spell on them all. Amy turned to look worriedly at her twin.  
"She didn't even gloat. Lauren, what happened to her?" Lauren shrugged.  
"Maybe the lightening effected her brain!" she said in a loud whisper, meant to be heard by all the other children, currently gathered in the living room.  
Kate rolled her eyes, but didn't other wise respond to her sibling's taunting. Lauren's face was a study in worry. What *had* happened? Dean looked confused by the twins' behavior. Why were they trying to bait Kate?  
'There's something about him... something I can't quite grasp... What is it?' Kate pondered, lost in her own world. Dean blinked. Was Kate daydreaming? An idea pushed it's way into Dean's mind.  
"Do you have a crush on that stranger, Kate?" ...and out his mouth, skipping actual thought. Kate blinked rapidly and stared at Dean.  
"*What?*" Dean blushed and looked down. 'probably should have thought about that one before you spoke, eh Dean-o?' A sadistic voice in the back of his mind snickered.  
"Well...ah...you see..." While Dean sputtered, the twins looked on in fiendish delight (blackmail material!) and Kate stared, expression blank.  
Chris, also lost in his own little world, popped back.  
"It's because of the summoning charm!" He shouted. Kate turned her stare to Chris, then fell on the floor laughing.  
The twins chuckled as well, with a more dignified, I can't wait to use this against you at school smiles instead of Kate's wheezing.  
"The looks on your faces... oh Merlin, the looks on your faces!" Chris blinked.  
"What's so funny? It's because of the summoning charm we cast to protect you. That borrowed so much of our magical reserves, so none of us can perform simple spells. We were so worried we used a large amount of you energy, and probably made the storm worse." Amy and Dean nodded. Lauren looked instead to Kate, and helped her off the floor.  
"What were you thinking about?" She quietly asked Kate while Dean, Chris and Amy shared their experiences with the combined spell. Chris had noticed two different spells being used, one a cloaking spell and the original summoning charm, and felt the magic leaving his body when the spell ended, Amy had felt the subtle differences in the magic surrounding her own. Dean had actually seen the magical energy, but he refused to share much more. He had a sneaking suspicion his resistance during the spell had wasted most the energy about to be used in the spell.  
Kate sighed and let Lauren get her back into the chair she had so recently vacated.  
"I dunno... that stranger reminds me of someone, but I haven't the foggiest idea who." Lauren smiled, glad to see her sister opening up.  
"Yeah, those big black eyes were pretty freaky, huh?" She agreed, but Kate shook her head.  
"No, I'm sure his eyes were hazel... " Kate blinked. "and I think that's supposed to be important. Oh, I feel like such a fool!" Kate's voice raising in the end of her exclaimaion.  
A scuffling at the door was all that stopped Amy from doing something extremely unpleasant to Dean with her wand to get him to talk. Dean breathed a sigh of relief and ran to answer the door, opening the door without thinking for the second time that night.  
Lauren mumbled herself.  
"Damn dog's better trained than that boy... " Amy nodded. Kate, who would have explained why they kept Dean anyway, was currently hugging her dog. After nearly squeezing the life out of the poor thing, Kate led the way backing into the living room, Snuffles hobbling behind and Dean last  
"What happened to you?" Kate asked the sopping dog, not really expecting an answer.   
"Can't be worse than what almost happened to me." Snuffles barked. She looked into his hazel-brown eyes and smiled.  
'Wait, hazel eyes?' Kate's memory sparked. But, that was impossible right? Kate's thoughts spilled out her mouth.  
"Impossible... but he really did smell like wet dog, of all things." Snuffles barked again, louder this time.  
Kate stared blankly, not believing what her mind had reasoned out. Her hand, moving at a snail's pace, reached for Snuffle's paw. Snuffles didn't even try to back away, and Kate stared at the burnt paw. The fur on the lower leg was seared almost all the way to where the dog's legs connected with his body. The burning was so awful the dog's footpads were pink, about to bleed from the walk home.  
"Ow. I imagine that'd be easier to treat when you're human. Would you like to transform back?" Kate's voice sounded flat to her own ears, and a little voice in the back of her mind said she must be in shock.  
The other Bell children were starring at the pair like Kate had grown an extra head and Snuffles had commanded the growth. Kate turned to her family and smiled a small smile.  
"Don't you see? Snuffles are an Animagi. In fact, he's the stranger who helped me earlier. Both him and the stranger have hazel eyes, and they both have identical burns on their hands. Or paws." The black dog sighed, and with a small 'pop', a man in his middle years in wet, ratty clothes with angry red burns covering his hands was sitting in the living room. Kate cast a drying spell and Snuffles hissed as the cool water left and his only buffer against the burns was removed.  
"The hands..." He muttered. Kate nodded. Now that Kate understood what had bothered her about the stranger, she was thinking much clearer.  
"Dean, you've got a muggle medicine kit, right? Go get it. Chris stop starring and get some of Dad's old robes. Amy, Lauren, get some really cold water on the double." No one moved, but Snuffles hissed in pain again and the children went scurrying off.  
"Who are you?" Kate asked, her outward calm betrayed by the tremors in her voice. Finding out your dog was really a human being can have that effect on a person.  
The dark-haired man shook his head in disbelief, which turned to a sigh of pleasure when Amy set two buckets of cold water in front of him and he ravaged hands found some comfort.  
"Don't you know enough?" His rough voice questioned her. Amy and Lauren sat down next to each other on a couch, dumbstruck and trying their best to hide it behind sneers. Kate sighed, but she hadn't really expected a real answer from the man. She suspected the only reason her memory wasn't erased was because the man had no wand.  
"Well Snuffles, I'm only asking questions till I come out of shock, which shouldn't be too long." She shrugged as if this answered everything. Snuffles nodded. Dean returned with some bandages and a white case with a red cross. Chris was a moment behind him with some of their father's robes and a clean under-robe (the equivalent of thin muggle clothes). Amy eyed the strange case Dean hefted with curiosity.  
"What's that?" She asked him. Dean blinked and clutched the case.  
"It's a bunch of stuff muggles use to help people who get hurt until a muggle doctor can see them. Teacher said most families have one somewhere in their house. We were given the option to buy our own, and I did. Good thing Kate remembered Snuffles said his burns wouldn't heal using magic." Kate blinked and laughed.  
"Don't give me that credit. You were always complaining about your teacher making you take home muggle stuff, and I remember you mentioning a medicine kit. About telling you to get it, I don't know any practical healing magic whatsoever." Kate blushed. "And I'd a appreciate if you could all pretend you didn't hear that. Dean, get on the case!" Dean jumped and flashed Kate a empathic smile before settling down to work on Snuffle's hands. He wanted to keep checking up on her, but he lost himself in healing.  
Chris set the clothes he had near his older brother, who was working with a will. When he moved away to a chair near the twins, he realized his big brother hadn't noticed him at all. Amy and Lauren where talking quietly amongst themselves and sending amused glances at Dean, who was fussing over Snuffles like a mother hen. Chris found a book from somewhere or another and couldn't read past the first few sentences.  
The room was oppressively silent, broken only by the Animagi's hisses and growls when Dean was too rough with his burnt hands.  
  
"Forgive me for sounding confused, but why are you here?" Amy asked. Kate had left for the bathroom several minutes ago and was showing no sign of return. Lauren winced when she thought about what Kate was doing. She was usually cheerful beyond the point of annoyance, but Snuffle's change had disturbed her. And the twins were protective of the Gryffindor girl when she had been hurt, whether or not she knew about it.  
"And explain why we shouldn't turn you into the Ministry right now." Lauren glared at the dog-man, and his shoulders fell under her intense gaze. The twins reminded him too much of Dementor's, and his trip down memory lane was making thinking a challenge.  
"You know for that sure I don't work for Voldemort." He started. Amy retorted   
"just because you don't bear his mark doesn't mean you don't work for the Dark Lord." just as Chris blinked and asked,  
"How?" Amy and Lauren exchanged a look.  
"It's a trick we learned. Amazing what you can discover in the Slytherin Dorms. There is only one way to hide the Dark Mark" Amy explained and Lauren interjected "That we discovered in the Slytherin dorms" and Amy finished "and writing L-I-O-N on a person's left forearm will reveal if a person has the Dark Mark." Snuffles nodded.  
"Clever. Who would think to write lion, the symbol of Gryffindors, to discover the Dark Mark?" He spoke to himself. Silently he added 'Only Gene Thomas' The man had handed the Op-Center a bomb against Death Eaters. He missed the old friend dearly, and understood why Dean didn't like to talk about his family. He had been told his father was a Death Eater, but no0-one could have told him he was a spy for the Op-Center. Amy repeated what she had said before.  
"You don't have to have the Dark Mark to work for Voldemort." Snuffles sighed. His memories were so troublesome right now. How was he supposed to convince these children he was innocent when all he could see was their parents?  
"I never hurt anyone in the time I stayed her, and this evening I endangered my own life to save Kate." Chris, happy for an excuse the stop starring at his book, piped up in Snuffle's defense.  
"He's right about tonight. Combined spell efforts are dangerous, but the burns on his hands justify his place as controller of the spell, meaning he would have taken at least double whatever damage we received. In face, all our hands should be singled a little bit, but by taking the controller position, he can take all damage on himself." He explained. Lauren again shook her head.  
"You didn't answer the original question why are you here at all?" Amy spoke for her twin. Snuffles sighed. Why did life always force him to do what he didn't what?  
"I'm here on Dumbledore's orders." He said. Well, technically it wasn't a lie. Amy snorted, but Kate had reentered the room.  
Her eyes were red around the edges and her lip looked sore, like someone had bitten it repeatedly to keep from being angry. In fact, her whole appearance hinted that she hadn't known whether to be mad or upset. She appeared to have settled on downtrodden for the time being. Downtrodden an sarcastic.  
"Professor Dumbledore sent you here to our house to bark at people and steal homework?" The man winced more than when Dean had been fixing his burns, partially because of his former master's appearance and partially because of what she had said.  
"Albus told me I needed some fun off to get over some emotional trauma. This is the 'building up confidence' but before I got on my assignment. I'm currently dead as far as the Ministry knows, and I'd like to keep it that way and avoid any awkward questions." Again, all true, if the Ministry considered him dead because that's what he would be as soon as they found him. Kate sighed. Kate   
"Let's let him off. Snuffle's has had a bad enough day as is." Snuffles brightened.  
"You mean it?" He asked just as the twins exclaimed.  
"What do you mean?" Kate answered her sister's question first.  
"Well, I mean he hasn't done us any harm, in all the time he's been here near us. He says he works for Dumbledore, and what Death Eater would lower himself to say that? They hate the Professor. And I don't hear Amy and Lauren calling him a minion of Evil, and if this guy can convince the twins of something it must be true." She paused to blow her nose and wipe her eyes again. "Besides, I trust him, a little." Dean popped in.  
"And why would he come here with his paws, er, hands still injured? I don't think he planned on being discovered, and if he could have he would have gotten his hands fixed by someone who wouldn't ask this many questions. He doesn't have a wand, but he's proven himself a powerful wandless wizard by pulling that stunt with the combined spell, and yet w all still have our memory and feel fine." Kate smiled her thanks at Dean.  
"And I'm beat. Let's go to sleep." Kate finished with a yawn.  
"But... " Chris sounded unsure and the twins looked half-convinced. Kate sighed in the middle of her yawn.  
"Look everyone. I own Snuffle's over here" She pointed to the wizard sitting cross-legged on the floor. "a wizard's debt. He saved my butt out there, remember Chris? I really don't want that hanging over my head. I say we let Snuffles alone." There were a lot of holes in the explanation Kate had given, but the family was willing to indulge a little for their sister. But not that much, and Amy said so in the nicest voice she could muster. Kate agreed.  
"He has reveal himself to our dad. If anyone knows what to do, it's dad." Kate said this as if it were final, and eyed all her siblings like it was. She remembered a similar situation not so long ago, when she had asked for her siblings to except her pet, and now she was ordering it. Things changed like quicksilver in this house.  
The children all nodded their heads in acceptance. Chris first, having the most faith in his adoptive father, hesitant and unsure if any heads would bow after his. The twins, grudgingly, after Lauren won a silent battle of wills. Dean last of all, overwhelmed and not wholly 'there.' Still, he had faith in his patient. Kate smiled at them, and her smile turned to another yawn.  
"Alright. What do you say we go to bed?" The twins sighed and shook their heads at Kate, trumping upstairs and again whispering quietly to each other. The Thomas boys followed suit, and Kate turned to her pet dog turned human. Kate eyed him in a measuring way.  
"Since you're an Animagi... could you, you know, teach me?" The dog-man looked startled.  
"Probably not. I'm not going to be around forever, you know. Besides, I learned to transform for a very important reason. A friend. I don't think you have your own reason." Snuffle's voice was hoarse by the end of his statement, but Kate just nodded. 'He had become and Animagi for a friend, what did that mean?'  
"Goodnight dog." Kat mumbled and headed up the stairs to the bathroom.   
"Oh." She paused to voice an afterthought. "If you try to sleep in my bed I will kill you, so help me Merlin. Clear?" Snuffles gulped and nodded.  
"Crystal"  
  
"Oneesan! Come listen to this!" An young voice shouted.  
Pause.  
"What did you call me?" Another responded.  
  
~ A door opens an shuts quickly. A deep voice calls into the house.  
"Hey kids! I'm home... " The voice trails off and there is a quick intake of breath. Almost immediately a robe shuffles and a *thud* is heard, like someone is backed against a wall.  
"What do you want Black?" The deep voice is back, deadly cold.  
"Liam, I-" The slap of skin on skin is heard.  
"Who gave you the right to use my name?" The deep voice has lost it's calm, and a crazed note is even more threatening than the calm. The threatened gulps audibly.  
"Remus sent me."  
"Don't give me that bullshit Black!" The deep voice rages.  
"Stop Bell, Damn it, why don't you believe me?" The other voice sounds desperate. The deep voice laughs.  
"Don't you already know?" Deep-voice sounds on the verge of hysterics. ~  
"*Enough. Why is this so important, servant? Without a proper Time-Turner, which you have failed to provide us with, this information is worse than useless.*" A cruel voice intones over the two men. The voice of a thousand terrible things, and the sick pleasure of peeling off a human's skin and braiding it together and spells that kept you alive long enough to see your own heart be smashed and fresh graves everywhere bearing the hint o f a necromancer spell to they rise and maul and cause pain to those they cared for in a life long past, their souls being used as fuel as they watch their loved ones fall by their own hands were spoken calmly were lurking on the surface without the slightest attempt to hide them curled in the mere vibrations of this person's speech.  
"I oh... let me move forward a little." The servant timidly said. The timid one was unnerved by the voice and the Time-Turner failing to work, and it brand new!  
The spell was altered, and again the two voices were heard.  
~ "Just, wait until the first week of school at Hogwarts. I'll be back to explain everything then." Came the voice of the threatened, much calmer now.  
"Wait! I want some answers now! What's going on? ... Black? Where did you go you gods-forsaken-" ~  
"I believe Sirius Black will have useful information... " The timid voice was loath to volunteer anything.  
"My my. What a good pet." The cruel one's voice held no hint of satisfaction, but a pale, sickly hand reached out and petted his timid servant like a dog.  
"Crucio." And when the screams died down to whimpers, a voice muttered softly to himself.  
"I wondered. So bodily contact increases the pain. Interesting. My pet has been very useful indeed... "  
  
TBC  
  
A/n- Again, I can't say I'm sorry enough. This chapter has been long in the making, mainly because I'm a lazy bum. Luckily I've had ideas swirling in my head about the next chapter since I started this fan fic, so if life is kind to me, chapter 6 shouldn't take nearly as long as this, this, thing! As you may have noticed, I used the word oneesan, meaning older sister in Japanese. Simple words like this randomly smashed in English statements are usually a sign of a anime fan. I thought it would be amusing to have an anime fan, hey it takes all kinds, right? For those of you who are getting annoyed by all my references, I'm really sorry Gomen! Plus my spelling can be really disturbing, so ask if you don't understand. When I mentioned the Time-Turner not working, I was under the assumption the tuner took you the place in history as well as time, saving the Ministry the trouble of transportation. I think you all go the impression the combined spell was heavy-duty magic. All that magic in the air stopped most muggle devices to stop working well into the night, long after Sirius and Liam's reunion. The magical spells already there were also effected. They only started working about halfway through the 'confrontation' and spells cast outside the Hogsmeade-Cullsmeade area started working seconds before Liam say Black. Now I'm going to pretend I didn't just reveal a part of the plot (that I though was cool) in the note and exclaim how long I ran on during this note and sign off. Toodles!  
~Dweia's Double 


	7. Making It There

Chapter 6  
  
Making It There  
  
Disclaimer- See earlier notes, which ever you want. I still own only my original characters (Laim and Fey Bell, Chris Thomas, the Twins and the Fletcher Girls) although it's too much to hope they would listen to me. I also don't own A Simple Plan (not even the CD!) or the rare Who-Roast-Beast. Life is cruel.  
Anywho, on with the story. (To my whole three fans out there! Wo ai ni, mina!)  
For anyone that didn't notice, I changed the last chapter and added all the rest, so you might want to make sure you read it all. Thanks for reading!  
  
Kate wasn't popular in school. She never had been, but it wasn't something that nagged at her, it just was. There was no set popularity ladder, for the most part. Some, the exceptional few, caught everyone's eyes. Such children lived for the spotlight, and age was never a concern. Kate wasn't one of the focal points of the school, and this suited her just fine. It made sense, Kate couldn't speak in public and oral presentations where a nightmare.  
Kate didn't like the limelight, but sometimes she stepped outside the box she had built for herself. Most other Gryffindors knew her as 'the Chaser' a quiet girl who hung around Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet. Sometimes she liked to make them think otherwise.  
Which was why Kate was walking through the Hogwarts Express aisle way with a muggle CD-player about to fall off her travel bags. It hadn't started out that way, of course. Couldn't all embarrassing situations be traced back to a few less and brilliant choices that you never connected?   
Back when the Bell family had made their yearly rounds to Diagon Alley for school supplies, Kate had been nostalgic. This being her seventh and final year, she knew she could never again come simply to buy school supplies, unless she chose to continue her education elsewhere, most likely in America. By this time next year her parents would expect her to support herself. So when she had asked to wonder off on her own, without having to listen to Chris speak loudly about how lucky they were he made them come a month in advance (He had only had a week to memorize his book list) and the twins exchange amused glances over his head, her parents had nodded with understanding smiles. Kate had wondered right out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the large muggle store full of music. A sales worker had flashed one of those predatory grins a wolf gives a baby rabbit and Kate found herself outside the store again with a flimsy plastic bag containing 2 CD-cases, a CD-player and batteries looking for all the world like she had gotten caught in a whirlwind. Oddly enough the sales worker hadn't been phased by Kate's wizarding money. Vaguely she remembered hearing from Dean muggles used different money. She had stopped a bemused teen around her own age and with a pleading look whispered,  
"How does this work?" The boy laughed and proceeded to explain. Kate had given him a good many disbelieving looks to the young man when he explained what went where and why. Nevertheless, what the boy said proved true, and Kate pranced happy as a clam back into Diagon Alley. Until the inevitable became reality and the CD-player sputtered to a stop as Kate neared her family. Luckily for her, the Bell famliy was rather self-absorbed and Kate stuffed her player to the bottom of her bags. She later found out Dean had owed Chris some money and was trying to avoid paying by participating in some hair-brained plot the twins had thought up. As it was, Dean paid the twins a large portion of his pocket-change and could barely scrape enough knuts together to pay for his school supplies and had to beg more money off Chris to afford new robes.  
Once Kate got home, she asked Dean about muggle items, hopping to learn what had happened to her player. it hadn't worked at her house either, and nothing the boy at the mall had told her seemed to be working. Dean had pushed her off the Chris, who was too busy reading his new textbooks to do any more than wave in the vague direction of 'Hogwarts, A History'. Kate had spent a frustrating hour looking thought the introduction (which was 53 1/6 pages long) until she flipped to the back and scanned the index for 'muggle'. She carefully read over the section about muggle objects and how they failed to work in areas like Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, which had 'high levels of magical concentration'.  
Kate slammed the book shut and walked up behind Dean, who was sitting on the couch waving his wand in the air with practiced ease, softly muttering the incantation to something or another. She dropped the book on his head and walked to her room with a sniff.  
In the uproar of laughs that followed, Dean's mind cleared enough to envy his friend Seamus Finngian. Girls didn't abuse him, in fact he seemed quite popular among the opposite sex. What had he done to deserve this?  
  
Kate stamped around in her room. What was she going to do now? 'Stupid Dean! Like he didn't know all that nonsense about muggle stuff. I bet he made me look all through that book for fun! Boys!' Kate paused in her internal rant to see the dog starring at her.  
"What? Do *you* have an idea, dog?" Kate sarcastically asked the Animagi. The dog nodded. Kate glanced from the dog to her CD-player, hidden under her bed, back to the dog. Sighing, Kate sat down on the bed and watched the dog transform.  
When Snuffles had determined her parents were not going to walk into Kate's room at any moment, he settled down on the end of her bed, his customary place in dog form. Kate scrunched away from the man and he winced. Kate was still very uncomfortable with the idea her dog was really a human, and Snuffles blamed himself. He slid off the bed onto the floor and sat Indian style.  
"You said you had an idea, dog-boy?" Snuffles frowned at his nickname but didn't comment, only nodded.  
"As you already know, the build-up of magic causes muggle-made objects to malfunction. The more complex the worse the malfunction. I propose you learn to create a magical barrier. Liam and Fey have both taught you how to control your own magical concentration." Kate blinked. What was he talking about?  
"Um. What?"  
"You know how you can control how powerful a Lumos spell is?" Kate nodded. That was one of the first spells that she had learned, and her father had explained now much she wanted the spell to work changed how well it worked. Eventually she had learned to make the glow resulting from a whispered 'Lumos' to flicker almost out of sight then grow to the intensity of a small sun.  
"Yes, I believe."  
"So you can control how much magic you use. I'm sure you can already sense places with high levels of magical residue. And maybe even people with magical abilities." Kate blinked again. What was Snuffles getting at? Snuffles noticed Kate's blank look and tried again to tone done the big words.  
"You like to be in Diagon Alley, maybe you feel safer, sleep better or are more energetic at Hogwarts?" He prodded. Kate nodded.  
"You can sense which of your friends are coming up behind you sometimes?" Snuffles asked more confidently. Kate shook her head. Snuffles narrowed his eyes. 'Perhaps sensing magic and sensing people's magic are different things...'  
"Well, as far as Hogwarts, that's your unconscious reaction to places with high magical intensity. Your brain knows on some level more magic had been used around you, and that makes you more comfortable, emotional, whatever. How you could be interested in something so devoid of magic like a muggle music player is beyond me." Kate simply shrugged This was starting to sound like school.  
"Is there a point?" The dog-man rolled his eyes.  
"Of course. If you can learn to consciously 'feel' or ... 'see' magic, you can probably learn to keep it out of somewhere, namely your player."  
"And?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.  
"It would work." Kate blinked for the third time.  
"Oh. Really?" She seemed to have lost all sarcasm and looked almost excited. Snuffles nodded.  
"That's what I believe." He sounded suddenly uncertain. Removing magic was unheard of, no one had ever wanted to do something so against the medium in which they lived. Kate mistook his uncertainty for anger, and she realized with a start how rude she had been to her impromptu teacher. She pushed aside any uncomfortable feelings she harbored towards her dog.  
"I'm.. sorry, Snuffles. Could you please show me how? I'll behave." Kate paused between fear and enthusiasm. Snuffles laughed.  
"Then I'll give it my best shot, master." He jokingly replied. Kate gave him a dirty look.  
"You keep that up and I'll make you clean my room. My name is Kate." They both shared a smile. And so the ice was broken and a friendship began.  
  
That night Kate and Snuffles experimented. Through trial and error, Kate discovered using a method her father taught her helped to 'feel' spells. Liam Bell had taught Kate to clear her head before even attempting to change how strong a spell was. You found your magical center, which was easier than it sounded. You closed your eyes and focused on what it felt like to cast a spell, the feeling of magic coming from somewhere near your heart. Right where your physical heart was also your magical center, which might have been why the Egyptians buried people with their hearts intact. Once you found the glowing magic that was purely *yours*, you had a heightened sense of awareness. Kate could feel the wandless magic lingering around Snuffles, which Kate could only assume was his trasfiguration spell. Kate let him borrow her wand (14 1/2 inches, weeping willow and unicorn hair, wispy) and after he cast a Lumos spell with it, Kate could see the spell using a wand was diluted and foggy. It was a confusing process, seeing spells, and it really couldn't be called seeing. Sensing a spell went beyond the five senses Kate was used to. In fact, you didn't need to be have your eyes open to sense a spell, but Kate insisted on it or she would fall asleep.  
Kate was able to recognize the room spell across the hall and compared wandless magic, magic using a wand tuned to your magical signature or magic using someone else's wand. Wandless magic and attuned wand magic where both about quite powerful, but wandless magic was harder to control, and depending on your own magic, more powerful. Un-tuned wand magic was a pale and sickly thing and just as uncontrollable as wandless magic.  
This was all very well and good, but around three in the morning even Kate wanted to call it a night, and she still couldn't feel any dormant magic (not being used for a spell) and still couldn't sense Snuffle's personal magic. Snuffles was beginning to doubt all three abilities worked together, but maintained this was simply because she was best at sensing new things. Cast spells were always a little different, so Kate had no trouble identifying them. She had been living in the Bell house and around the Forbidden Forest her entire life, so she probably did recognize the magic there, but she was familiar with it, so it wasn't easy to bring to her conscious. The same went for Snuffles, who had been nearby for the past month.  
Kate doubted this, but before she could argue properly she was fast asleep. Snuffles was gone the next day, and the next. Kate waited at nigh for him, but days turned into weeks which turned into a month, and the night before her final trip out to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express she stuffed her comatose CD-player into her traveling bag.  
  
Kate found a compartment in the back of the train between two other compartments full to the brim of nervous first years and haughty second years instead of sitting with her best friends Alicia and Angelina. If she was going to try out what Snuffles had suggested she would need lots of quiet and even more time.  
'I wish I had practiced more... ah well, too late now...' Kate had almost completely forgotten about her muggle toy over the summer.  
Kate glared at the player for a few moments, daring is to mock her foolishness too. The device was keeping to itself, though, so Kate simply glared at it and positioned herself comfortably in one of the Hogwarts Express seats, half-gazing out the window.   
After the heat wave had broken with the thunder storm Kate had almost ended up a part of, the weather had taken another dip. After a week of pleasant weather that you wished summer could be all the time, it had been wet, dreary and nippy. Not really cold, but everyone wished for the heat wave to return. The plants had been effected by the strange weather, and the trees rushing by looked worse for the wear, and shrubs and grass alike were on the sickly side. Kate recalled a few Hufflepuff second years whispering something about You-Know-Who being able to control the weather. Kate had almost laughed out loud at that. Still, she was reminded of how much Voldemort was feared. She and her siblings had sat talking about him in the safety of their play room, and it made the Dark Lord seem less real.  
Kate had also discussed sensing spells with Chris in the play room. Once, when Chris wasn't tangled in his books for a change, Kate had convinced him to help her. Chris was sure there was a spell for everything and all problems, and he suggested using a Charm of Origin on Kate. Kate had exclaimed she could see almost exactly what she had seen with Snuffles, but she understood more. Chris was entranced and forced Kate to use the same spell on him. He blinked several times and looked around the room. He had a strange expression on his face.  
"What is it?" Chris was giddy with joy and his smile showed it.  
"It's wonderful... I can see all the magic floating around the room, little particles of magic... it's amazing, Kate." Kate sighed some things would never change. Chris always seemed amazed when he saw magic, couldn't get enough of it, kind of like the muggle-born children Kate knew. Chris sat, dazed for several minutes before hopping up.  
"Do you know what this means, Kate? The Charm of Origin, it must be a natural emphasizer of the talents wizards and witches have to tap into their magic! And if this Charm has different effects on us, then we really must have different talents... Not everyone can use the Charm of Origin, you know Kate. It doesn't work for some people... Oh Kate, do you think the person who realized this charm knew about the people's talents or..." Chris went off to study and research and Kate had seen no more than small scraps of him during his pursuit of knowledge.  
Kate had know settled into her seat in the train car and turned away from the window, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. She wished she had someone to cast the Charm of Origin on her, but Chris was off with his friends, and she hadn't told anyone else about 'sensing' magic.  
Through trial and error (emphasis on error) Kate had learned closing her eye and getting comfy helped a lot.. So she leaned against the jiggling wall, closed her eyes, and simply felt. Kate didn't know how Father had taught her siblings how to control spells, but Kate felt inside of herself for the magical center she knew was hers. It helped to remember what it felt like to cast a successful spell, and how the magic poured out of you, more importantly where it poured out from. Mostly it felt like falling asleep. Kate focused on little details in, things she was conscious of, things she could hear, smell or feel. A slow train of thought about her surroundings until stray thoughts about magic floated in. At least that's what she'd done with Snuffles. The first few times they had practiced, Snuffles hadn't used the Charm of Origin, so sometimes it took a few minutes to get to the point where she recognized spells. After having the Charm of Origin used on her, Kate thought she would be able to recognize magically aware thoughts, like when Chris had seen the magic in the air.  
Of course, Kate never been quite able to grasp 'magic' thoughts at home, but active spells should be enough like it. Kate tried not to think about all the times Snuffles had had to shake her awake after she had tried to sense magic and fallen asleep. And the downside of using the falling asleep method was the few times she had used it Snuffles had to keep casting spells, and Kate never could catch the first few.   
'But', she reminded herself, 'there was no one to cast the Charm of Origin on her', so Kate tried to ignore the more cynical part of her mind that threatened her she couldn't do a hundred little things she didn't even know about right. She gave that voice a firm 'Bugger off.' and drifted.  
'Yummy, food cart will be here soon... it's quite warm in here... this place's dusty, it's tickling my nose... the sun outside is sure making it warmer in here... some kids are playing exploding snap over there... those are some really poor wizards over there, one's almost a squib, really...'  
Kate almost jolted our of her seat, but instead reached out to the level of awareness that could sense the magical essence of the children to her right and left. Well, technically they were everywhere, but Kate could recognize those closer easier. When Kate reached out she felt her own magic flare up in her chest and could suddenly sense fires that she instinctively knew were the magic of other Hogwarts students.  
She had been right in her prediction, the boy (she thought it was a boy by all the loud sounds coming from the car) would never be a strong wizard. However, they were new students, all of them, most likely muggle-born first years with one or two wizarding-born first or second years. All the students had a small glowing ball hanging in the air where their heart was. It shimmered and flickered, like a fire you were about to floo in. All the little fires were simmering and glowing and Kate got the impression she had a texture and feel to them, but Kate didn't get close enough to see. Most of the fires were faint, more like mist than fire, probably untouched magic potential, and Kate identified the fires which were entirely mist as muggle-borns. They had never had a chance to practice any spells. Kate felt her way down the hall to the right, meeting fires of several more students. She could sometimes tell what type of magic a person was strongest in. Sometimes she could tell which students were more powerful. She could see potential in first and second and maybe even third years (she thought, she'd never compared how much magic she knew with Dean, and Chris did not count as a basis of comparison. Kate was surprised she couldn't tell houses apart. She had assumed there was something the sorting hat could see around a person and that was what made it decide which house you were in. Perhaps she had to look closer... Kate brushed one of the glowing fires and was overwhelmed with spells said person knew, even some experiences. But most of all Kate felt the person's thoughts.   
She became the person.   
  
Suddenly she *was* Dennis Creevy, clutching a set of inks and eyeing *the* *Harry**Potter* with longing. He was so brave and strong, facing Voldemort. 'Why can't I be like that?' Dennis smiled a little at that thought. No one could ever be quite as silently powerful and Harry, and he didn't really want to try. After all, to have the fate of the whole world on those handsome shoulders...  
"Are...are you sure I can't paint you Harry sir?" 'Collin has told me so much about him, and last year I actually got to talk to him, kind of like right now.'  
"No, Dennis, I told you before..." The Gryffindor golden boy pulled at his collar and Dennis felt guilty. What was he doing bugging Harry Potter? He had more important things to do, shouldn't be annoyed by the likes of Dennis Creevy. Guilt waged a short and furious war with the Hero-worship. Crying out in pain and terror, guilt was overwhelmed by a fresh wave of worship when Dennis realized Harry was talking to him.  
"I-Oh.. all right, but be quick about it, will you? I don't want Malfoy making another insult about my swelled head..."  
"Would you like something to eat, little miss?"  
  
"I said, would you like something to ear, miss?"   
Suddenly, Kate was somewhere else and someone else. The world popped back into focus and color, and it took Kate a second to sort out everything.  
"WHAAH!" Kate tried to jump back and slammed her head on the wall. The tolley witch stepped back, unfrazzled. This obviously wasn't the first time she had woken someone up from a sound sleep.   
But that wasn't what had scared Kate. Much like Chris had described, the air was full of little glowing particles. It reminded Kate of light streaming through her bedroom window illuminating dust in the air. It was pretty amazing. Kate didn't really know how she had managed it, but this was really neat. Kate shuddered when she remembered being Dennis Creevy. She had new respect for Harry Potter, putting up with that skunk.   
Kate shuddered, but remembered she had a reason, maybe a little sily, to do all this, and got down to it, so she remembered what Snuffles had told her. After all, he'd been right so far. Kate was ashamed of doubting her friends. Sometimes Snuffles seemed a little unbalanced...the way he avoided water as a human and a dog, then had the nerve to say he smelled fine! He could be smelt a mile away and it took forever to get his wet down smell out of things. He had picked up quite a few of a dog's characteristics, and it grossed Kate out.  
But Snuffles had been right about a lot of things so far, so she might as well fallow his instructions some more. She tried to remember, after all it had been a month since she had seen or heard from him. But he had said he had some business, and she believed him, a little. The Animagi said malfunction was caused by lots of magic in one place, so if she could just force the magic out...  
Kate squinted at the little dots of magic. Whenever they collided they created sparks that reminded Kate of the 'fires'. That must be what was messing up her CD-player.  
Kate squinted again and the little dots seemed to quiver, then moved quickly around each other in a wild game of tag. Kate heard a faint high-pitched chatter, like a squirrel on helium. Was the magic... alive? Well, it was getting annoying  
/Stop all that hopping!/ Kate called firmly in her mind. And where she was starring, the dots *stopped*.  
"Woah, freaky..." Kate said out loud, starring at the frozen dots.  
"Ahem, miss?" Kate turned and focused all her attention on the owner of the voice. The dots started drifting out of view, and Kate held onto the part of her mind that could see them until they remained visible and she sighed in relief. The patient witch was eyeing Kate with a mix of amusement and concern. The woman was quite used to strange exclamations from the younger years, but not the old. The girl before her didn't seem all 'there' and the woman pondered how picky Headmaster Dumbledore was about student's sanity. Not that she'd have to deal with the girl, kid was worrying her. The blonde child's eyes slid back into focus and she laughed nervously.  
"Heh, sorry about that. Umm, no, I'll be fine, thanks!" She said quickly. The trolley witch fled, grumbling to herself about absent-minded-good-for-nothing children.  
Kate ignored her and turned back to her 'work'. The dots were bouncing around again, and they didn't even stop when she glared at them.  
"Bugger! What am I going to do now?" Kate muttered to herself. She racked her brain for an idea. Was there a spell she could use? Of course not, that would probably be worse on the muggle object than just being around the dots with their spark. Part of her own magic, her 'fire', how knows what it would do to her little CD-player? Kate snickered. She was really starting to like the thing, even if it was just being stubborn. She hugged someone because no one else talked to them, something like that.  
Her and Snuffle's idea seemed hopeless now, but Kate refused to give up. She'd learned so much! ...She wanted to finish what she had started. Kate pulled out the CD-player that had caused all this trouble, that had started everything.  
"Why couldn't you just work?" She asked the CD-player sadly. 'This has not been a good day.' Kate looked around. Sound, so soft she hadn't noticed it, had stopped. The Chaser could hear a ringing in her ears like you hear sometimes when its really, really quiet, like there isn't a sound for miles around. Kate looked up from her muggle toy and saw none of the particles around her were moving. 'What?' She thought, startled. Slowly she looked up and around herself. 'What is happening?'  
A hole appeared in the dots of magic, and slowly formed into... a face? Yes, it was a face, and it looked a lot like Kate.  
"um." Kate said, starring at her reflection. 'What is happening?' Kate remembered when she had first thought the dots had a conscious. Now she was sure.  
She waved to her double ganger, and it waved back. Kate remembered hearing about a muggle horror movie, and she wondered if it was like this. She sure had no idea what she was going to do. The face formed into a small figure, which bowed before dispersing. Kate gulped. Why did she get the feeling something important had just happened that was *way* over her head?   
The dots went back to moving, and Kate saw there were sparks on her CD-player, and they were creating a sickly light around the muggle device. It really wasn't a light, it was a lack of light, where the dots faded from life. This made Kate really angry. Not only were the dots hurting the CD-player, they were hurting themselves! /Get out of there!/ And the dots obeyed. Slowly they were pushed out of the muggle object by an invisible wall. The dots bounced off. Kate nodded to herself when the wall reached the edge of the CD-player. /That's enough./ Kate didn't know how, but she knew she held the wall at the edge of the player's plastic cell and tied it off there, using the plastic to hold the wall. Nothing had ever come so easy for Kate. Everything else in her life she had had to muddle through and practice. Nothing was ever so easy, so natural that thought became action before she really had the think about it. She knew without worrying they wall would hold. It was a huge power trip.  
Luckily Kate's swelled ego didn't ruin her hard work, and the magical barrier held, and the plastic strained for a moment, then it was back to normal. Kate turned next to her first CD. It was of a band called A Simple Plan. She had heard it playing over the intercom at the store and asked about it. When she had seen the three logos she had hesitated because one reminded her of the storm, it was a rain cloud with a large lightening bolt. Kate remembered another significant thing about the lightening bolt and blushed. She really hadn't meant to act like the Creevy boy. She hadn't realized what people would see when they noticed the lightening bolt. Too late now.  
Kate could feel the dots becoming insubstantial and fought to keep sensing them. She was getting tried and wouldn't be able sense magic for much longer. She couldn't really explain it, but she knew when she let go of her extra sense, she wouldn't be able to excess it for quite a while, maybe even a week. Kate really wanted to shield at least one of her muggle CD's before school started.   
Kate laughed softly to herself. Not ten minutes ago she would have been overjoyed to even sense magic. Five minutes ago she would have been ecstatic to discover something that would help her control the magic. Kate remember something her father had said once.   
"What's rich? I heard one of my co-workers say rich is double what you have right now. I disagree, rich for me is ten times what I've got." Why did the old guy have to be right? Sometimes her dad said strange stuff, but one way or another is *was* true.  
Kate looked down at the CD and concentrated on the magical particles in it, telling them to /get out/. Much slower than before, the clashing dots and sparks receded. Every centimeter was a struggle, but Kate had almost secured the barrier when she was backhanded with a *Thunk*.  
"Wake up stupid Gryffindork! What do you think you're doing, ignoring me?" Came a drawl, nasal voice. Kate was shaken out of her sense, and she could feel the particles and her new-found talent receding. 'Stop!' She called mentally, trying to cement the almost completed border, but she knew it was just a thought. Numbly she stared at the CD, she nothing more than the shiny plastic. Painfully slow, she looked up at the student who had so rudely awakened her. She absolutely refused to rub her cheek, even though it was turning red. It didn't really hurt anyway, whoever had done it must be a toothpick.  
Kate looked up and saw a small, sickly and pale blonde looking down on her with distaste. 'Well, I was right. Puberty has not been kind to the kid.' She thought. He was almost gray, like the kid never saw the sun, and his limbs stuck out of his robes at odd angles. His ears were too big, and his eyes, but she supposed he wasn't that bad-looking. At least not in her school, but then again the pickings were pretty slim at her school, Kate always thought. Glancing again Kate realized the boy wasn't all that ugly, her first impression had been clouded by resentment. He held himself arrogantly, like it had been ingrained into him from birth. He was attractive, in a small, almost feminine way. Her first reaction had been to pound the boy senseless, but her family believed in protecting the weak, not imprinting their face into the ground. 'Stupid Mother and her rules.' Now that she had identified the younger Hogwarts student as a weakling, she couldn't hit him, even when you noticed the robes he wore made him a Slytherin. 'Damn, now I can't ask the twins to be mean to him either.' Amy and Lauren never hurt a fellow Slytherin, 'least not in public.  
The boy shifted to the other foot, impatient. He was used to people reacting instantly to him, in anger of fear. Kate had done neither, simply stared blankly. Kate tried to contain her anger to words.  
"Do I know you?" He looked familiar, she most likely had seen him in the Great Hall. The boy stepped backward in astonishment. All the Gryffindors should have known him.  
"m-My name is Draco Malfoy." Draco said that like it should mean something. Not that she heard his name, she realized he one of the boys the younger year girls goggled at. She thought she had even heard his name mentioned by the Gryffindor Three. Kate nodded.  
"I'm Kate Bell, from the Gryffindor Quidditch team... Oh! I remember you, Draco Malfoy!" Kate sounded excited. That's where she had seen him! Draco smiled.  
"You play on the Slytherin team, right? Do you still use that bush off to the left of the big goals?" She looked interested, Markus had told her all about the Slytherin's cheats forth year when he graduated. Said he wanted to keep his team on their toes. Draco blanched.  
"w-What? We don't cheat, it's you bloody Gryffindors that sneak around like the rats you are!" He sounded off-balance in this conversation, something that obviously didn't happen a lot to the blonde seeker. Kate smiled and nodded. Good, now she could enspell all the other watching places Flint had told her about. 'That's for hitting me, creep.' Kate thought softly.  
"Why did you hit me?" Kate asked quietly, just noticing the huge thugs peering in the doorway. 'Good. Maybe that will keep the punk from getting the crap beat out of him too much.' Mother always pitied the weak, Dad said she should have been in Gryffindor instead of Hufflepuff. Kate just wished she wasn't so much like her mother. What father said made more sense.  
'Some kids just need a swift kick in the behind to set 'em straight.' But then he said 'And if they're sticking their nose that far in the air, they're trying to pretend they haven't already been kicked.' Forget it, Dad was too soft as well.  
But part of her wondered if this pretty-boy hadn't already been kicked. For good or worse, she decided to make an effort to be nicer.  
"That's a nice name you have, Draco." Draco looked sunned. Hadn't she just been about to threatened him if he didn't tell her why he had hit her? Girls were crazy, Draco concluded.  
"What do you mean?" He asked, avoiding her question.  
"Well, it sounds really neat, you know? It's unique. Not like Kate. I know about five other girls named Kate in my Arithmacy class alone. Again, do you think you could tell me why you hit me?" The blonde Chaser bit her tongue to keep from letting her anger get the best of her as she eyes the other blonde. Kate hid the CD and player back in her bag. Slytherins had a tendency to hate muggles, and Kate suspected this one wouldn't be afraid to hit her again, since she hadn't his him back the first time. Besides, he did have to thugs outside.  
"Really, do you think you can tell me why you ruined the rest of my day, not to mention the rest of my week?" Kate bit her lip to keep from rubbing her head. She had a massive headache coming on. Somebody was going to pay for this. Now all of her head hurt, even her tongue and lip. The boy tried to look arrogant again.  
"You didn't answer me, Gryffindor." The arrogant boy responded. Kate let out a laugh that quickly turned to a growl/cough. This little kid was really bugging her.  
"Well that's a really crappy reason." Kate glanced out the window and noticed the Lake was coming into view, the giant squid waving it's tentacles in welcome to the new first years. Finally she could see her friends all fellow Chasers. They almost never talked or visited during summer break.  
"Alright!" Kate smiled and again ignored the pale Draco. Instead she focused all her efforts on gathering her bags, suitcases and whatnot into a pile and getting ready to leave. Her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had begun! The return of the school year destroyed Kate's impending bad mood, and she smiled at the fifth year.  
"Nice talking to ya! Perhaps we shall meet again soon, huh?" And then Kate was gone from the train car with a flash of her Gryffindor scarf, which, like the rest of her uniform, she had changed into before beginning her little 'experiment'.  
Kate rushed down the hall, intent on being the first out of the train, as it was going to stop in a less than a minute or two.  
Passing by a closed door, Kate heard what sounded like her brother Dean laughing. She snickered and wondered who was giving the guy what for. 'Lets find out!' Kate happily thought. It was good to hear laughing again. Kate opened the door.  
Dean's best friend Seamus Finnigan was sitting on Dean stomach tickling him mercilessly. Dean was breathless from laughing, his eyes shut and Seamus looked like a cat that got the cream. Kate covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. Seamus noticed her and grinned widely, slightly pink. Dean looked confused that Seamus had stopped the tickle torture and blushed dark red when he saw Kate in the doorway.  
"This-this isn't what it looks like! He tricked me, I swear!" Seamus and Kate shared a knowing look and Kate sniffed.  
"Right, I can tell I interrupted something... personal, so I just want to warn to to finish up soon, cause we're almost to school! So no more naughtiness!" Kate gave them her best 'cute' smile before darting off. She was followed by Dean's indignant squawk and Seamus's hearty laugh.  
  
Kate was a little disappointed when Angelina and Alicia didn't hear her calling to them. Kate was forced to sit with a bunch of giggling third years, but even that didn't dim her excitement. The sorting and following feast passed in a daze for Kate, and she still hadn't had a chance to speak with her best friends. They had been surrounded by younger years, aside from the Weasley twins, also in their last year, who choose to sit next to their younger brother...Ron? And his friends, somebody Granger and, of course, the famous Harry Potter. Kate didn't need to stare, the poor kid got that enough. Kate wasn't really close so Kate didn't try to drag them into conversation. Like most boys she didn't know very well, they were most likely to give her one word answers, or none at all. Instead she turned to the girl on her right, an chipper second year named Helen. When the food appeared, Helen muttered to herself,  
"Where's the rare Who-Roast-Beast?" Kate blinked.  
"Um. What?" Kate asked with an air of someone who just had something fly over her head. Helen smiled.   
"Oh, nothing." Kate was familiar with that phrase (she used it frequently to her parents) so nodded and made a fake bow. Helen laughed, and they shared a smirk. No one understood sarcasm at this school.  
Kate was quite proud of herself later that evening when Dennis and a boy that looked just like him, only taller, rounded on Potter. Kate knew just what the younger was thinking, and she felt a wave of pity rise in her stomach. She was going to do something nice. Stupid and self-sacrificing, but nice. 'Bugger.' Kate waved Dennis and his brother over to talk about Quidditch. Letting their play-by-play of all of "The Great Harry Potter's" tactics wash over her, she mouthed 'Run' in the general direction of the Weasley twins. It took a very long time to convince the Creevy brother's she didn't want to join the 'Harry Potter Fan Club (tm)' after she was sure the Boy-Who-Lived had escaped. She wanted to shoot herself. That most have been one of the stupidest things she'd done in her life. Even Professor Dumbledore had eyed her with one eyebrow raise as he walked by and Kate stared helplessly at him.  
Because of this Kate was one of the last people to leave the Great Hall, tromping down candle-lit hallways tiredly. She felt like she had run ten kilometers. Finally making it to the Fat Lady, Kate muttered the password, 'Welcome Back' that she had asked the Granger girl at dinner. With her waving her perfect badge around like that, she had been begging to be someone's authority figure. Kate trudged up to the girl's dorm and glanced at the chart listing chores, bedroom arrangements and years of everyone in the girl's dorm. The Head Girl was in charge of the list, Kate wondered idly if the boys had one like it. Probably not.  
Kate gulped and stared at the piece of paper like she'd seen The Dark Lord himself.  
"Merlin. I promise never to eat again if I wake up tomorrow morning in the Great Hall, heck I'd take the Infirmary. Just let this be a really bad dream." Kate pinched herself, and when nothing happened she banged her head on the wall in defeat.   
This was not going to be her year.  
  
TBC!  
  
A/n- Hey lookie! It's another of those cliff-hanger thingies! (gulps) You...you're not mad, are you? (gets hit by something heavy) Oh. I see. (breaks down in tears and bows) Gomen nasi! I'm sorry this chapter took so long, I've had finals and been sick and sick again, in fact that's how I finally finished this devil. Yeah, believe me I know this took forever, the whole 'sensing' thing was a mother to write, it stumped me for at least a month, so tell me if it's good, and I get to win the bet against my muse. Yes, that's another reason this took so long, I found a muse! He's a dear, and his name's Wufei Chang, but you can call him Wuffles. I always do, which might explain why he wouldn't hel me write this chapter until I cut off his food lines... Naw. Yes, as you can tell I skipped the rest of the summer, it took long enough to write out the first 5 chapters. In case anyone cares, there might be a *little* bit of Dean/Seamus, depending on what you reviewer people say. Every review brightens my day immensely, so please send me your comments, I really need them. Wuffles keeps saying I'm a weakling and I need to use my own brain, not his. Please, send me your comments, ideas, death threats, five-letter responses, I'm desperately in need of attention. I want to know what you think about Dean and Seamus, who Kate's parents are (I dunno, so that one should be interesting), who should be able to 'sense' magic and a more original name than sensing. I think Wufei might be the anti-muse. Love ya!  
~Dweia's Double 


	8. The Good Life

Chapter 7  
  
The Good Life  
  
Disclaimer- I'm lazy. See previous notes. I own only myself (mostly) and the situations I create. If you wanna borrow them, ask. I'm sure the people in my head will let you at them. They're all pretty sick of evil plot bunnies stealing their living space.  
A/n- Alright, early warning system here. I know Wufei's gonna start throwing rotten veggies at me soon (as all authors or author-wanna-bes like myeslf have a massive phobia of them). That's why I'm hiding. (Gulps) Well, anyway, I *finally* finished this chapter, which is the end of Meeting Snuffles. Yeah, it's technically not over. You think I'd let Wuffles off that easily (doges rotten tomato). I plan to make this the first of three. (it's a trilogy! ^^;;) Kinda like Star Wars, only without the money. This note is so you realize there is a reason I created the gundam girls and *peter* chang (snickers, Wufei passes out), who you will meet ahead. I'm gunna write the second story (tentitivly called 'Aftermath') from the pov of Kate's family and the 3rd will be from the pov of the girls and peter (laughs again as Wufei's limp body twitches).  
MysticSorceror- (sniffles) Someone out there.. really cares! (cries). See that, Wufei, I'm not *as* pathetic as all that! Yeah, Justice boy, explain this! I didn't even pay them or anything! About spacing my chapters better, I actaully have a firm timeline set up from my next story/part. Well, for the first few chapters. I'll try. Thanks for the review, it means allot.  
On with the story, and please remember to r/r!  
  
Kate stared in mute horror at the chart on the wall. She shook her head and rubbed the worry lines she could feel forming on her forehead. Her headache was back in full force.  
"It's too late to figure this out..." Kate mumbled as she slumped down the hallway to her room. She passed by the four-poster beds without looking at them. She didn't want to know who was in them.  
She noted her trunk was pushed against the bed by the window, far away from the other beds near the door. Kate plopped down on the bed without further thought and was fast asleep, headache and all, before her head hit the pillow.  
  
"Raise and shine, sleepy-head!" Called an extremely chipper voice, followed by a series of giggles. Kate's only response, was to grumble mono-sylables into her pillow and roll away from the bright a cheerful intruders. They couldn't be talking to her. And even if they were, Kate thought to herself as she pulled the blankets over her head to avoid the sun streaming through dark red drapes, anyone who was sick enough to be cheerful this early was not someone she wanted to meet.  
"Go 'way." She muttered into the pillow. There was sand under her eyelids and cotton shoved all the way through one ear and out the other. It was probably a good thing Kate couldn't see this intruder, or she would be tempted to tumble out of bed and smother her.  
"Get up lazy-bones, you've got to tell us what to do!" There was that inpertinant voice again. Kate's brain was waking up in extremely slow stages, so this statement didn't register in her foggy excuse for a brain. Then another gear in the chaser's brain snapped into life and she realized the pounding in her head was a headache.  
"You made it to your room. What more do you want?" She grumbled again, her voice doing it's best impression of a frog. There was more giggles from the same invisible voice, but another invivible someone cleared their throat and an invisible 'be careful, it might wake up' glare was thrown.  
"Bugger you all. I'm up already. Gah!" Kate's voice tested out several pitches before deciding on her normal tone. Kate realized she was awake now, and her bed was getting uncomfortable, strange as that was. She was going to have to get out of bed soon, and she didn't want any of these giggling people to help her. Opting for the all or nothing approach, Kate flung herself upward with a small grunt, opened her eyes, and began falling back to the bed. Like a long-jumper who suddenly realized she wasn't going to make it, Kate flailed her arms for all she was worth and managed to catch one of the poles holding up her canopy. She promptly slumped against it and closed her eyes. From the brief glimpse she had gotten of her new room-mates, it was as she had suspected.   
She'd become a babysitter. That was what the friendly Gryffs referred to it as, anyway. Most of the Gryffindor girls would never admit 'babysitters' existed.  
Back a couple hundred years, a Gryffindor head girl had been conversing with another seventh year Ravenclaw (only 7th years were made head boys/girls). The Ravenclaw had been appalled to learn there was no Gryff sex-ed. There was no formal health class at Hogwarts at all. This wasn't really a surprise, considering it was founded in a time period when it was impolite to mention pregnancy. It was called a woman's 'condition' and strictly taboo. Girls had been forced to go on what Mommy told them before they left (nothing) and the bits of truth gleaned from the traditional horror stories told in the girls bathroom. Essentially, it was every girl for herself in puberty.  
Rowena Ravenclaw was smarter than her male co-founders in that aspect (and others, but that was an argument Kate didn't want to take up with the Ravenclaws).  
After hearing about the system in place in the girl Ravenclaw dorms, the nameless Gryffindor head girl set about using her powers to create a similar system in the Gryff dorms. She used her status as head girl to create several reforms in the girls dorm. Girls were assigned chores (although few were needed, what were house elves for?), which rotated monthly and were posted on the back of the door into the girl's dorm. On of her more revolutionary changes was creating babysitters.  
Sitters were seventh year non-prefect girls selected at random to have three to four girls transferred into their dorms. These transfer students where usually second to fourth year girls who hadn't yet experienced the wonders of puberty. Sitters were granted special rights in the dorm and notified of secret passages to help them look after their charges. Sitters had a head start on all the other seventh years.  
This would have been great by itself, but this nameless head girl was too Gryffindor for her own good. She told all the other Gryffs just what sort of privileges the sitters had that other seventh years didn't have. Plus, she was known for her harsh discipline. Most reforms she made where tossed out a few years after she left. Sitters where about the only tradition that survived, and they suffered for being her idea. Besides, most Gryff students had bad memories of their old sitter, and refused to be friendly to the type of person who abused their power. Whatever the reason, all Gryffindor babysitters where ignored by their previous friends.  
Babysitters were outcasts in their own house. Kate had seen it happen before. She wasn't really a part of the 7th year Gryffindors anymore, no matter what the yearbook would say. And like most other students in Hogwarts, most of Kate's friends were in 7th Year. Now at least Kate knew why she hadn't seen her friends, the other Gryffindor chasers, on the train ride or at the feast. The boys didn't count one way or another, because she would follow her female friends away from her, and even if they didn't, boys weren't the best people to talk to. Not about anything really important.  
Kate just wished... she wished Alicia and Angelina could have been bigger than that. .Merlin, now that she knew what it felt like, she wished she could have been bigger than that last year when Jamie Campau was made a babysitter. Then she shrugged it off, smiled and thought sarcastically to herself 'Well, I said I didn't want to grow up...'  
"Alright, sound off. Who are you and what have you done to my life?" Kate recognized the girl who had so carefully woken her up, because her daredevil smile grew at Kate's words. She then mock-bowed and said in what Kate guess was her most solemn voice,  
"I am called Mia Wiggin. And I have to say, I did nothing to your life. It got crappy on your merit." Mia was a short Asian girl with shoulder length black hair , deep brown eyes that looked to much like the twin's eyes to be comfortable, and a heart-shaped face split by a wide grin. Mia's slanted eyes squinted when she smiled, but Kate could almost feel a cloud of buoyancy surrounding the girl. The girl next to her rolled her eyes at Mia and smiled tolerantly at Kate.  
"I'm Stella Finnigan. Sorry about Mia, she's a little crazy in the head." Stella gave Kate her winning smile. She was a short as Mia with strawberry blonde hair to around her shoulders as well, and she had bright gray eyes that sparkled with kindness. She was extremely pale, like most people at Hogwarts, whether they taught or learned. Unlike most adults, however, Stella's face was a mass of freckles, which didn't seem to belong on such a mature girl.  
The next student looked over a Kate, shrugged and said nothing. Stella shook her head and sighed. Kate smiled to herself, there was a close friendship in the making. Stella was too sweet to let this girl stay quiet for long.  
"That's Bonny. She hasn't told us her last name." Kate raised an eyebrow at Bonny and the American stared back flatly. She also had dark brown eyes, like Mia. However, the feel behind their eyes couldn't be more different. While Mia's eyes could easily look out of the twin's bodies, Bonny's eyes belonged on the man who called himself Snuffles. Kate stared at the girl whose brown hair disappeared from view down her back and wondered what had made her so quiet. She silently asked her if she realized what she was getting into with Stella, but she didn't get to see the answer because the last girl captured Kate's attention.  
"Shadrach Maxwell." She stated clearly. Her auburn hair was hacked off at her ears and her hazel eyes were solemn and calm. While Bonny was quiet because she was to shy to talk, Shadrach didn't talk because she didn't have anything she thought was worth wasting breath on. Kate got the impression she always knew what she was doing, and if she didn't she was extremely good at faking it.  
"As you may already know, my name is Kate Bell, and" Kate smiled at Mia, "I'm god so far as you are concerned. What year are you, anyway?" Kate asked the question to the air in front of her, knowing who was going to answer and looking forward to it. Mia never backed down from a challenge, it seemed, because she laughed and put her hands together in prayer.  
"Oh lord-er-lady-er-*God* this would be my second season at tho holiest school." Kate snickered at Mia's performance and earned disapproving looks from Stella and Shadrach, and a blank one from Bonny. She could get these kiddies, stick-in-the-muds and all.  
  
School started the next day, and life settled into an acceptable pattern. Then again, Kate reflected, it's amazing what becomes acceptable when you can't change it.  
...As I was saying, life settled down into a relaxed anticipation of Halloween. The young Gryffindor chaser still avoided the Slytherins with a passion after her run-in with Draco Malfoy. Lucky for her he was in a different year. Kate learned to 'hang out' with younger Gryffindors and made lots of friends with Hufflepuffs. This surprised her, because like the rest of the school she had come to accept that Hufflepuffs were losers. In reality, she learned they didn't care about the image their house projected, and thought for themselves. This commonly led to their ignoring traditions they thought were a waste of time, ignoring Qudditch because they weren't interested because they didn't care if the other teams thought of them and the like. Kate again berated herself for following the sheep-herd at school and missing up on some really great friends.   
For the most part Kate helped her 'children' but being the arrogant teenager outcast is a difficult life, and no day was complete until Kate yelled at them about something stupid. She became absorbed in the difficulties of her fate, and her charges were sometimes forced to fend for themselves. This made Kate their leader only in name, she was their blacksheep and sometimes close friend.  
Mia, Stella, Bonny and Shadrach became extremely close, a closeness that would make them as famous as the Gryffindor Trio. They, dispite their differences, became quite the team, and Mia swore if they ever got seperated by class schedules, she would threaten Dumbledore himself to get it fixed.  
  
The girls stuck together through everything, but soon academics lost it's challenge (if it ever had any) and they moved on to more interesting puzzles. It didn't matter what type. Acing a test, making friends with the Slytherins, foiling the twin's new prank, transfiguing all the Ravenclaw Qudditch robes to Gryffindor right before the match.  
They quickly grew bored of these small things and looked again for more difficult things to defeat. They nearly met their match with Peter Chang.  
Peter was a third year Hufflepuff and the black sheep of the badger house. He was out spoken, sexist and bad tempered. Mia determined he was their next target.  
Kate tried to stay netural when the topic of the girl's latest 'missions' came up, but most of them were downright hysterical. Oh course, by onspoken agreement Kate never tattled on her charges and they never betrayed her for taking late night walks like most people with things on their mind.  
  
"Alright, Stella, you're our outside woman. Gain his confidence. Bonny, espionase. I want to know what he does, why he does it, when and where, except what goes on in the boys toilet. Shadrach, recon. I want to know what his hobbies are and what he's interested in from all the other Hufflepuffs. I don't know how you do it, but I don't know anyone else that can make people talk as freely as they talk around you. Go get 'em!"  
"What are you doing, Mia?"   
Smile. "That's easy. I'm your leader. Bring everything you learn to me. We begin this on Halloween day"  
  
Kate was the most excited about the upcoming Halloween, although she thought it below her to explain to her new roommates.  
Halloween. Most muggle-borns didn't know it, but Halloween was a time of powerful magic. Power built and magic became even more unpredictable than usual, which why all classes were forced to avoid hands-on projects, because everyone had a tendency to blow things up. Snape, of course, kept up normal classes as usual, causing more trips to the infirmary than he really had to, and punishing Gryffindor and Hufflepuff alike. Hallween was his favorite time of the year. Kate was worried about potions class with the Hufflepuffs, on Halloween day, but Snape saved Madame Pomfrey a hassle (mostly because she threatened him with pink robes) and called a test instead.  
Amedeaus Deckson, a seventh year Hufflepuff Kate knew, managed to blow up his test anyway.  
Kate teased him about that all the way to the Great Hall and right up to his table. She even took the liberty of sitting through lunch with him, and informing all his classmates about his little escapade. Kate couldn't help laughing at poor Amedeaus. She offered to help him in Muggle Studies next week to make up for it, but Kate knew it wouldn't be the last time she made fun of her friend. Amedeus (or Ami, as she called him) was too much fun to make fun of. The way his face got all red... it gave her a major *evil* rush. Kate shook her head at herself, amusing some of the Hufflepuffs. She shruged and smiled a little.  
"Guess I'm too hyper for my own good." They silently agreed, and Kate dove into her lunch. She just knew she could use her 'magic sense' tonight.  
"Hey Peter!" Kate looked up from her mashed potatos. She knew that voice.  
'Wait... wait. Five, four, three, two....'  
"No, get away you Gryffindork!" Whined another voice.  
'Yup, it's Mia and the girls' Kate concluded. After all, who sounded that cheerful and made everyone she knew groan in annoyance on sight? Only Mia, and where she went, Shadrach, Stella and Bonny followed. She waved good-naturedly to her charges.  
"Hey girls. Who's on the torture list today?" Mia pointed to a small Chinese boy who was trying to hide behind the boy sitting next to him. He looked up at Kate and glared at her. Shaking his head flamboyantly (is *that* a word? Goodness knows...) he spoke to Kate in a mencing tone unbefitting a third year with mashed potatos and peas stuck to his elbow (aquired during his attempted retreat).  
"I am Chang Peter, the victim of these onna's injustice." Stella giggled a little and offered her hand to Peter.  
"Hey, I'm Stella Finnigan, and I was wondering... does your GameBoy work?" She asked politely. "because I overheard you talking to a fifth year about it. My brother, Seamus, told me it was okay to bring it, but once I got on the train it didn't work." Stella continued to speak to the Chinese boy, and Kate and Mia exchanged a look.  
"*Peter*. Good god Mia. What are you trying to pull?" Kate nabed Mia and asked her as the other girls split up to begin their individual missions. Mia shruged and grinned again.  
"His housemates asked me to... you know." She tried to explain.  
"Get the stick out of his butt?" Kate questioned. Mia nodded.  
"They want him to loosen up. And if I was reading their hints right, they want his boxers on the flag pole next Slytherin game." Kate looked intriged and moved away from Peter who was currently complaining about his GameBoy to Stella.  
"Why Sltherin?" Mia grin grew even wider, and Kate idlity wondered if it hurt.  
"That's the beauty of it. His crush, some fifth year by the name of Blaise, is in Slytherin. The Hufflepuffs are a little tired of him yelling "Injustice" when he gets mad. And the girls are around here are pissed off at getting called weak onnas."  
"What's an onna?"Kate asked. Shadrach popped up out of nowhere to answer.  
"Woman in Japanese. The way he says it, it's ment to be a cuss word." She added. Kate shook her head in awe.  
"That's mean. But, seriously, I pity Blaise. I can help you. Maybe if I fix his GameBoy, he'll warm up to you girls a little." Kate offered.   
She figured tonight the magic would be running high, and she could fix her own CD-player. Who knew what what she could do? If she could call on the magic to help her again, anything seemed possible. Shadrach smilpy raised her eyebrow and moved on, stating more clearly than words would have she didn't give a rat's arse. Mia looked highly amused.  
"Yeah right. Stella complained about her GameBoy in the common room and one of the other older years, some Hermoine Granger, gave her a mouthful about how 'It says in 'Hogwarts, A Histoy' that there's too much magic concentrated at Hogwarts for muggle stuff to work and how nobody seems to have read the novel'. I don't believe it." Kate shrugged. She was beginning to realize it might not be a good thing to draw attention to her 'talent'. However, she was still determind to help. Peter really needed to losen up, and if they didn't make Peter's attitude worse, they woulcd make him a lot more pleasent to be around.  
"Just give me a chance, kay Mia?" Kate begged.   
'I think this is just my excuse to fiddle with magic sensing. I think I'm obsessed. Great.' Mia considered, then with a flop, she nodded and pointed towards where Peter was pouting and Stella was trying to get his attention. Bonny looked up from her work and shot an amazed look at Stella. If even Finnigan couldn't pull the boy out of his shell, there really was no hope for him. Kate silently agreed, but she figured it would help once his undies saw sunlight. Well, maybe not, but just imaging the look on his face was making it hard for her to stop giggling. She pulled herself together as lunch was almost over and walked over to the Hufflepuff.  
"You said GameBoy, right? S'A muggle toy, right?" Kate asked pleasently. The boy nodded.  
"It doesn't work, right?" Chang nodded the affirmitive. Kate smiled to herself and Mia flashed Stella the peace sign behind Kate's back. Mission accomplished.  
"I can fix it... if you want." Kate said, voice innoccent. Peter eyed Kate suspiciously.  
"Why do you want to help me, onna?" Kate's eye's narrowed.  
"I want you to stop calling me onna. I have a name. Or perhaps you fear me...?" Kate made it sound like a question. Let the boy ponder that one. Peter bristled.  
"I do not fear you. If you think you can fix my game system, I will not call you onna ever again." Kate smiled. That was enough for her. Not that she really needed anything in return, but what Peter didn't know wouldn't hurt him. After collecting Peter and Stella's GameBoy's and some games at dinner, she headed off to her room. Mia followed her.  
"So, when will they be done, god?" Kate shruged. Now how was she going to answer that one?  
  
After her charges left her alone, Kate got down to business.  
'How did I do this last time?' Kate questioned in her dorm room. The library was too public, it rained yesterday so Qudditch field was out, and Alicia was sitting in the common room talking with the twins. That left only secret passages and empty classrooms. No fool did actual work in those. Such secret retreats were often shared by half the school and you never knew when an over-eager couple would stumble in near you.  
Kate starred down at the assorted gaming material, her CD-player and both CD's she owned, one still in it's plastic. Her Simple Plan CD was open and Kate had removed the cover and changed the page so it showed lyrics. That picture was a little too much for second year girls to see without driving her insane with questions.   
With a cover like that, Kate didn' know how she had bought the CD. In fact, she still wasn't really sure what happened after the sales clerk had decended on her, and the rest of her Muggle Studies Class assured her she wasn't the only one. Kate personally believed store clerks had some sort of non-magical ability to ensnare people with their eyes, maybe like a Veela.  
'I'm just nervous. I've got to go ahead and do this, or I'll chicken out.'  
'Why?' Kate wasn't totally sure why she was scared. It seemed she finally had something 'different' about her, something special was finally hers. She was afraid to discover it had all been a dream. Kate congratulated herself on discovering what was bugging her, but that didn't make it any better. She didn't want to find out this whole sensing magic ability was just a one-shot. Nice try, dream over, move on with your totally unremarkable life. Stealing her nerves, kate repeated something she'd heard Chris say once, which he claimed was from a book.  
"Like is a dream from which was must all awaken." And she closed her eyes. Maybe she wasn't going to die, but Kate felt like she was about to wake up and she hoped she saw a world when she opened her eyes.  
  
Not that Chris mentioned anything about the book, or that the people who believed life was a dream also said "May you sleep well and wake..." But that's not really part of the story.  
  
Remus Lupin eyes his canine companion with more that a little distrust in the small muggle cafe.  
"Are you sure this is the best idea?" He muttered to the black dog, a friend from his school days. From his gray hairs littering his hair like the first snow, such carefree days that are enjoyed during school years where long behind him, and his companion as well.  
It had been almost two years since Sirius's face was aired on the British televison, but muggles seemed to find preverse pleasure in ruining each other's day. Better to be passed over as another crazy talking to his dog that a 'dangerous individual' conversing with a 'criminal mastermind'. Remus almost snorted into his coffee at that. Sirius might be an expert prankster, but her had barely passed any test after first year. Then again, that could be because of all the parties Sirius had hosted at random places.   
Amazingly enough, Sirius had been able to con his way into every and any party, no matter what house. Remus didn't understand that one, when he was still be sniped at by former Slytherins. More likely that was because of other things...  
Suddenly the werewolf felt someone tugging at his pant leg. Remus looked down again at the black dog that had occupied so much of this thoughts since his escape from the 'impenatrable' Azkaban. Said black monster was glaring at him with a determined expression.   
Well, Sirius was a dog, so his expression looked more like he had to pee. However his old-school friend recognized the glint in Sirius's eyes and knew he was in for trouble.  
In that instant, the former Professor Lupin staggered under the sufficating weight of fear. Fear he would lose the only friend he had left from Hogwarts. This was a potenially danergous mission whether Sirius choose to believe him or not. Liam Bell worked for the Ministry, more specifically under Moody. That mad had, would and could booby-trap his own house, let alone the houses of his employees. Remus sighed inwardly and stuggled under his new fear. In a moment of clarity, the werewolf realized he didn't want Siri to get hurt. He wouldn't *let* him get hurt when he didn't have to.   
'I could...' There was only one way to do this, and Arabella was going to fry his ass.  
'Actually, being late is stratigic. Time-oriented spells are ineffective, and if you arrive late enough you can catch the other person with all his cards on the table.' Like the Op-Center was gonna buy that.   
'All for you Siri.' Remus thought.  
"Fine, dammit. Let's just go home so you can floo over. Kay?" The dog nodded.  
Passing muggles stared and one little girl from the table over smiled and asked the dog if he wanted some candy.   
  
Cloth rustling.  
"Let's move." Commandingly, errie.  
"How do we know this will work?" Muttered, not meant to be heard.  
"*Silence*."  
Silence. Then, the small 'pop' of several people Aperating.  
  
Liam Bell knocked back another whiskey. They frowned upon alcohal in the Three Broomsticks, but on one was around to begrudge him a little comfort. Alastor would have his head tommorrow, but Liam didn't care about that either. Judging by the way the room was dancing, the man suspected he would willingly give his boss his head. This was going to be one hell of a hangover.  
Sirius Black had been occuping his mind. He still didn't understand a thing. Where had Black been staying? What did he want? Liam wondered byt the Death Eater hadn't killed him right away. Why hadn't Laim killed him right away, or at least stunned him for that matter?  
More questions kept coming. Why hadn't he told his boss, Alastor Moody. It seemed friends came before anything else, even the evil ones. The Auror knew he still cared about the Death Eater. His best former friend. Letting personal relationships come before his job and his alliences was just asking for a slow and painful death. Plus it was against company policy. It didn't matter who your best friend was. Liam had retained all little of his common sense and made sure Fey was with friends. Thank Merlin he had got something right, he thought to himself when he stummbled home.  
It was dark out, after all, so no one could begrudge him a little stumbling, could they?  
  
Fey smiled secretly to herself in the dark of her living room.  
Apperently Liam was hiding things from her again. He'd been secretive all week, and her personally arranged to have her away at some friends from work tonight. Thank goodness for sisterhood! They had understood how important keeping her husband in line was and told her he had set up their get-together.  
Fey shook her head, amused. The last time Liam had tried to withold information from her, she had been forced to walk in during an Op-Center meeting. He should have told her he was getting into trouble. It would had saved her several hours of detective work and him a load of teasing.   
Well, one way or another, she was going to find out what was wrong now.  
  
'-never bored... It's impossible to get bored with them...'  
Gestulating to the air, where invisible particles of magic glow. Invisible to most, but not to him. Their bioluminecse is much more comforting that muggle nightlights.  
Tom glared at the muggle device in his hand, a radio.  
'Destory this.' The magic, which had been helpless and perishing a moment before, glows with a harsh light. Given substance by emotion, the magic raced to obliterate the cheap metal object in his hands.  
"Much better." He mutted to himself.  
"m-Master?" Tom rolled his skelital eyes. One of his minions.  
Tom Riddle slowly dropped his coniousness of magic, along with his fragile hold against himself. He became Voldemort, bane of the wizarding world again.  
  
'This is curious.' Kate thought to herself after she set aside the muggle objects she had 'fixed'. Magical sheilds where in place, they would never harm magic again, and magic wouldn't harm them.  
She was floating on a wave of elation. She could still feel the magic floating in the air, all around and through her. Kate had choosen to sit on the floor, lying on the furry red carpet, which was much better than her bed. Besides, it was soaked with magic.  
'What is that?' The blonde chaser wondered again. There was a clear cord trailing from herself, where she usually could 'see' another person's magic. Kate couldn't tell much about the dormat magic in the room, but this something new was related to personal magic. Glancing around herself, Kate noticed several more cords, some slightly thinker than others, and every single one had a different texture. Like they were all made of different materials. Kate knew they weren't actually magic, at least not the sort that you could use to cast a spell. They were more like an extention of herself.  
Kate shurgged in a non-commital way.  
"Why not?" She thought, then choose a cord at random. This one was extremely thin, smaller and less dense than all the rest. But when she examined it, she saw how strong it was.  
-Gryffindor Trust- Kate gave a name to the cord in her head. It felt like it was made of blind trust, which Amy and Lauren insisted was a Gryffindor trait.  
  
"Argh... Where am I?" Sirius blinked. He had... voices in his head. And they weren't his, which was a definate change of seanery. Remus had tied him up so he 'didn't get hurt' and left him outside collared to a streetsign. His best friend.  
Laim Bell hated him and now he wouldn't even be able to explain. And again with the strange voices in his head.  
'Can my day get any worse?' He muttered to the voice, and moved to a slightly different spot on the sidewalk.. He furry behind was falling asleep.  
  
Liam shivered on the street and stared down at his house.  
'Time to face the music.' He thought wearily to himself. Still, something didn't seem quite right. Should he go it?  
"This is *my* house!" Liam mutted to himself, pushing foolish thoughts away. It was his house, nothing could be wrong.  
  
Kate blinked. She could *hear* someone thinking from her vantage point on the floor of the Gryffindor tower. She was 'inside' somone's head.  
'Cool!'  
Started.  
'What? Impending insanity, do you find pleasure in my misfurtune? I'm a dog for cripes sake, go away!'  
'Snuffles?'  
'Hey, you're the one in my head, you tell me.'  
'Snuffles! Cool I can hear your *thoughts*. I think you're right. I'm inside your head.' Kate thought.  
Annoyance flowed into Kate's mind and she knew it wasn't hers. It must be Snuffles emotion.  
'What's your real name, Snuffles? Who are you?'  
Suspicion.  
'Who are you?' Kate shrugged into the red carpet. It had been worth a shot. Too bad Snuffles first reaction was suspicion instead of complinace.  
'Kate Bell.' Too bad she didn't have the same suspicion.  
'What? Kate, how did you get here?'  
'Well, I was trying to do the whole sensing magic thing, and I discovered I could see a whole bunch of cords coming off me. Sort of like they were magic, but anyway I followed one and then I started to hear you talking! So I think those cords were my relationships with people. I think I can even use magic through them, or what's the fun in just being able to hear your thoughts?' Kate grinned sheepishly, even thought she knew Sirius couldn't see it.  
'Sorry, I can't help blurting thoughts out when I get exctied.'  
Amusement, Kate hoped.  
'Well, do you supposed you could use Alohamora?'  
'Why?' Kate wondered. 'Please tell me, don't hide everything from me.'  
'I'm going to explain to your dad what's going on. He was an important member of the Op-Center, so this is sort of like requitment and... he was my friend.' Kate nodded.  
'I think you 'thought' more than you wanted to. I'll try.' Kate pulled out her wand and waved it out of practice.  
Professor Flitwick had recently explained you didn't really need to move your wand at all. It was just something to concetrate on.  
"Alohamora!" Kate said clearly, and shoved the unlocking magic to Sirius through was she was pretty sure what the link. Through their conversation, Kate had been concentrating on where the emotions that she was sure weren't hers came from.  
Then she blacked out.  
  
Liam Bell was pushed against the wall in his coat room by nothing.  
"Where is Black? My servant has told me he still lives, and fights for the 'light' side in your Op-Center."  
"I...I" Liam nearly choked. The Dark Lord himself said Sirius wasn't a spy for him?  
"Why do you lie. Black betrayed us!' Liam threw his accusation with the force of an actual blow. The dark figure laughed, still in indistugishable hooded demon.  
"My, my, muggle-lover, we are talkative tonight. No, Black never betrayed you. I love the irony. How your foolish law enforcement sends this innocent man on the run. While your betrayor is regaured as a hero." Liam blinked. Why would the Dark Lord tell him this?  
Unless. It was said Voldemort was honest only with one type of person. The dead. Liam started whispering, and he didn't stop even when the power in his house rose to unbearible levels and a floresenct green light shone through his house, illuminating his dead wife.  
'I'm sorry Siri, so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?'  
  
Sirius raced towards Liam's house. It was Aparatable, but he didn' want to attract attenion.  
'Please let him not be mad. Please let him not be mad...'  
Sirius pleaded to the gods. Any deity that would listen. His black from was losing energy fast, but Sirius never slowed down.  
'Only one more corner...' The Grim's breath caught when he was the Bell house.  
  
Kate awoke minutes later to have a feeling of numbness travel through her. She blinked. What had she been up to, right after dinner? Her eyes caught sight of the GameBoys and her Cd player and everything returned to her.  
She had been connected to Sirius, then she woke up. She must have passed out, but the link had remained working.  
Sirius had been going to her house, to see her dad. Could something be wrong? A dark cloud slid over Kate's thougths.  
What had made Sirius so... numb? Kate frantically pulled herself through the link. This was different from simply traveling down it. Now she felt like she was being dragged through a straw.  
Somehow she found herself next to her one-time dog. And she stared at what he say, the same feeling of blankness containing the horror spreading through her heart, mind and soul.  
Through this void, Kate reached out to Snuffles, and curled up around him. Mindlessly they became one person in their grief.  
  
That's how James McCull, who worked the graveyard shift at Gringrotts, found them.  
The Dark Mark fading in the morning sky,  
The smoking remains of his neighbor's house.  
Not a trace of Liam and Fey Bell.  
And one small, crumpled blonde girl, covered in soot with her Hogwarts uniform torn humming a tuneless tun and clutching a black dog.  
The dog glanced at him, and the goblin was shaken. He eyes were blanker than a muggle doll's.  
When James stepped closer, he saw the girl had the same blank look. He she not been rocking back and forth he would have thought her dead.  
He panicked and flooed into Dumbledore's office.  
Mme. Pompfrey concluded they had suffered a great tragety before she even heard was was wrong. She tehn concluded Kate must have cried herself into shock.  
Only one detail didn't match.  
Neither Kate nor her dog cried.  
Because they couldn't.  
  
The End.  
  
A/n- Well, that was... twitchy, wasn't it? Probably a little too dramatic, but hey, I had fun. Anywho, Wufei was preaching boy scout stuff (glares at Wufei) so I have the Prolouge of my next story written out, thought not typed. Should be typed soon, though. There is one catch, however. I want at least TEN people to review or I'm forgetting the whole damn story. Please? ^^;; I think the next chapter's pretty good. (any ideas on names for it would be wonderful... hint.hint.) About Amedeus, the Hufflepuff (giggles) he's been begging to be written in somewhere. And Blaise is mentioned. In case no one else realized this, Blaise Zambini's gender is never specified. And I must have been feeling mysterious because I didn't give *it* a gender. I'm not sure if I want Blaise to be a guy or a girl, so if you have a preference, tell me!  
And another thing:  
REVIEW!!!!! I beg of you! I don't want to be the only person whose read my own story!  
~Dweia's Double 


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